For the first decade of my career, I had a very narrow, traditional vision of success: make a lot of money and get a nice house. I spent years as a software engineer, hitting my financial goals by my early thirties. But instead of feeling free, I felt aimless. That crisis led me to effective altruism, where I found work I'm truly proud of. Now I'm the COO at Ambitious Impact, where we incubate charities that tackle some of the world's most neglected problems.
I call my 20s "the lost decade" because I spent them confused about which direction I should go. I was always changing my mind — I'd read some political treatise and think, "Oh, that's really compelling, now I'm libertarian." Then I'd read something progressive and think, "Oh, now I'm a lefty." I felt like if I read a bit more, I might change course, so committing to any path felt premature.
When I moved to Germany, I figured I wanted to do something that helps people directly, so I started volunteering for NGOs during the refugee crisis. But I found the nonprofit sector was too slow for my taste. On the flip side, I liked the professionalism of the private sector, but struggled to find for-profits working on problems I actually cared about. I was looking for this Goldilocks solution that married rigorous thinking with meaningful action.
In 2016, a friend suggested I go to the effective altruism conference in Oxford. I was not a conference guy — I think I'd never been to a conference before, let alone fly to a different country for one. But something about it felt compelling.
"I remember arriving and feeling, 'Okay, this is my tribe.' I didn't even know what a tribe was and wasn't looking for one."
When I arrived, I found exactly what I wanted. Effective altruism combined well-founded philosophical ideas with people actually doing cool stuff in the world. People were taking action on ideas, not just philosophizing endlessly. On the tail of that conference, I got my first job in the space at
Founders Pledge and have worked at organizations aligned with effective altruism principles ever since.
Today I’m the COO of Ambitious Impact, which I describe as the Y Combinator of nonprofits. We start up about 10 high-impact charities a year and are aiming for 20 next year.
Our portfolio runs the gamut from conventional to unexpected. We launch a number of global health charities each year, which focus on issues like family planning and vaccination. But we also tackle neglected problems that sound unusual but represent massive opportunities. Take the Shrimp Welfare Project, for example, which recently appeared on
The Daily Show. Most people think "shrimp welfare" sounds absurd, but the numbers tell a different story: hundreds of billions of shrimp are farmed annually under conditions that would horrify most people if they knew the details. We're often the first organization to enter these overlooked spaces, trying not only to solve immediate problems but also to marshal interest into issues most people haven't considered.
"At the end of the day, you've got to do stuff that's actually good — where the rubber hits the road and you're actually making a change."
To me, effective altruism means really trying to achieve the most impact rather than just some impact. I'm grateful to be surrounded by a community of people pointing in the same direction because sharing similar values keeps me focused and motivated. My advice to someone curious about effective altruism is simple: just explore the next level, whatever that means for you. You don't have to make effective altruism your identity or take everything on board. Just look at the pieces that resonate and keep trying to change things for the better.
