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Hello everyone! My name is Shen, and I'm a philosophy and computer science graduate. I completed my BA in Philosophy and Classics at St. John's College, Annapolis MD, and my BSc. in Computer Science at the University of London. Now I'm pursuing a MSc. in Applied and Computational Mathematics. I currently work as a researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
I'm interested in Effective Altruism, because of the community's contributions to public health, particularly in the form of effective health interventions. I'm always excited about ways to help improve global health outcomes, and I'm keen to learn more about the EA community and it's philosophy of "doing good better."
I'm not quite formally acquainted with the EA philosophy, but I hope to learn more about it with time. I've already enjoyed reading through the EA Forum and it's topics on RCTs and public health/global development interventions, and I hope to learn more as time goes on!
Welcome Shen!
I've heard about St. John's through the partially examined life philosophy podcast, sounds like a blast. Hope you find this Forum valuable, let me know if you have any questions about the Forum, or EA in general,
Cheers,
Toby (Content Strategist for the EA Forum)
Thank you Toby! St. John's was a wonderful experience. It was by far the best way one could study philosophy in the modern age. For those that are unfamiliar; St. John's is a 4-year liberal arts college with a unique, 'Great Books' pedagogy. Essentially, students learn how to read and translate Ancient Greek and French. Then, over the course of our four years, we read the entire Western canon of philosophical works, in their unabridged form. Students discuss their readings through weekly seminars, with their peers and professors. Here's the reading list, for those that are interested.
The St. John's program is probably the only philosophy program where one still engages in the practice of the activity of philosophy, i.e. contemplation — as opposed to the mere scholarship and historiography of philosophy, i.e. "what did Aristotle write?"
My time there was able to substantively influence my own moral values and ethical understanding, and as I'm pursuing a more technical vocation (currently doing my MSc. in Applied Maths and working in biosecurity research!), I'm grateful to have had this background to help me navigate the process.
So anyways! Thank you for the kind welcome, Toby. I've been spending the past few days reading voraciously on the forum, and I hope to author my own post soon!
Looking forward to it!
I think that social movements are most effective when they have face-to-face interactions, which build solidarity, facilitate discussion, and prevent value drift (as well as reducing burnout and increasing subjective well-being). However, outside of EAGs I don’t see many opportunities to socialise with other EAs in London. This is despite London being the second largest EA city after SF (or so I’ve been told). Am I missing something?
Have you seen this page? It has links to a bunch of other pages that might help. The key quote is probably this one:
FWIW, this tracks with my experience as someone based in London but doing only occasional socialising with other EAs.