Open Thread 359

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This is the weekly visible open thread. Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. ACX has an unofficial subreddit, Discord, and bulletin board, and in-person meetups around the world. 95% of content is free, but for the remaining 5% you can subscribe here.

Also, ‘tis the season to be guilted into charitable giving! Here are some fundraisers I’ve been made aware of:

• GiveDirectly is a charity that gives money directly to poor families in Africa. GiveWell thinks they’re within an order of magnitude of the most effective charities in the world. You can learn more and donate here.

• Philosophers Against Malaria is a kind of aggressive-seeming scheme to pit philosophy departments against each other to see which one will donate the most to charity (in this case, malaria bednets). If you want to donate, or just check which universities have the most moral philosophy department, go here.

• Lightcone handles infrastructure for the rationalist community. They run the Less Wrong website and the Lighthaven campus (where we’ve held the past several Berkeley ACX meetups). You can read their pitch here, and donate here. Many of us have enjoyed and benefited from their work, and now would be a great time to give something back (and if you donate enough, they’ll name a bench after you). Warning that the (not affiliated with Lightcone) donation site quietly tries to add a 15% tip to themselves, and you should un-add it if you don’t want to tip them.

• And here’s Bentham’s Bulldog trying to convince you to donate to the Shrimp Welfare Project. “I’d be surprised if we got to heaven, asked God what the highest [moral] impact thing that we could have done is, and his answer was ‘oh, something very normal and within the Overton window.’”