When I started engaging with effective altruism, I was a postdoctoral scholar working on the moral, legal, and political status of animals. I had a philosophy PhD and some experience writing and teaching, but I was struggling to find opportunities for impact. I could do standard academic work, but I wanted to do more to connect my work with real-world change.
EA helped me find a pathway to impact in two key ways. First, I benefited from its ideas. I appreciated the aspiration to use evidence and reason to do good while staying mindful of biases and heuristics. I also appreciated the
importance-neglectedness-tractability framework for priority-setting and the emphasis on animal welfare, global health, and existential risk as global priorities. These ideas, along with other influences, helped me identify farmed animal welfare, wild animal welfare, invertebrate welfare, and AI welfare as areas of focus.
Second, I benefited from the EA community — the people, organizations, and resources that make up its infrastructure. Working with Animal Charity Evaluators, the Global Priorities Institute, and other groups allowed me to take my work in exciting new directions. These connections made it easier for me to test ideas, build partnerships, and start initiatives that might not have otherwise been possible. They also gave me governance experience through board and advisory roles, which prepared me for new professional opportunities.
My engagement with the EA community, along with other communities, helped make possible much of the work I do now. At New York University, I direct the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection and the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy, and I co-direct the Wild Animal Welfare Program. I also write books on animal welfare, AI welfare, pandemics, climate change, and other pressing issues. Each of these projects reflects, in different ways and to different degrees, the ideas and opportunities that EA offered me.
In my view, EA works best when understood as a flexible and pluralistic framework rather than a rigid doctrine. People can contribute in many ways — by reorienting their careers, making significant donations, or allocating a smaller portion of their time or resources. The community is stronger for containing a diversity of approaches.
My advice to those new to EA is that every path is different. You can look to others for inspiration, but you should avoid following someone else’s trajectory too closely. Keep important goals and principles in mind, but stay open to exploration and improvisation. If you do, you may be surprised at the opportunities you can find.
“People can contribute in many ways — by reorienting their careers, making significant donations, or allocating a smaller portion of their time or resources.”
For me, EA is ultimately about aspiring to do the most good possible while staying mindful of our limitations and staying open to different perspectives and strategies. The goal is not to find a perfect formula for success, but rather to keep sight of what really matters and be flexible and open-minded about how we can contribute to those issues.
