Jeroen Willems
Bio
Participation5
My name is pronounced roughly as "yeroon" (IPA: jəˈʀun).
You can leave anonymous feedback here: https://admonymous.co/jeroen_w
Currently residing in Brussels, Belgium. I obtained my master's degree in audiovisual arts, specializing in television, from RITCS in 2020. During my studies, I learned how to direct, write scripts, film, edit and develop concepts.
I have since applied and refined all these skills by creating YouTube videos for my channel, A Happier World. A Happier World is a YouTube channel that explores exciting ideas with the potential to radically improve the world. The videos tackle the world's most pressing problems and offer effective ways we can solve them. Topics covered include global health, poverty, animal welfare, artificial intelligence, pandemics, climate change, and even moral philosophy.
I have been actively involved with EA Brussels/Belgium since 2016. My experience in hosting and organizing events has provided valuable insights into effectively communicating EA ideas.
Pronouns: he/him
Posts 31
Comments140
Agreed. There is a major difference between thinking someone should be deplatformed just because they have opposing views (e.g., pause AI vs. accelerationist, libertarian vs. communist) and thinking someone should be deplatformed because they promote discriminatory views.
There's nothing inherently wrong with being controversial or outside of the Overton window. Many important ideas were once controversial, and many still are. But it is wrong to actively promote views that are racist, transphobic or sexist and to platform those who do. Not because these views are controversial, but because they go against creating a safe and welcoming environment for all.
That being said, I am not familiar with most of the speakers being discussed here, so I can't say whether the organizers made the right call or not with them. And I understand not every case is clear cut. But with Richard Hanania they clearly made a bad call in my opinion.
I've had admonynous for ages, my guess would be 2018-2020, but I've only had 2 submissions so far. One was recently, because I mentioned it in my recent fundraising post. This was actually useful feedback. I felt slightly frustrated because I wanted to refute some points, but I believe it's best to just let it be. This post does inspire me to promote/highlight it more.
In case you're interested in supporting my EA-aligned YouTube channel A Happier World:
I've lowered the minimum funding goal from $10,000 to $2,500 to give donors confidence that their money will directly support the project. Because if the minimum funding goal isn't reached, you won't get your money back. Instead it will go back in your Manifund balance for you to spend on a different project. I understand this may have been a barrier for some, which is why I lowered the minimum funding goal.
Hi Jamie!
You're right, output is definitely the biggest bottleneck. Right now, I'm focusing on making shorter videos that cover narrower, more specific topics. I'm also trying to incorporate more real-world footage to keep things visually interesting without requiring so much editing time. Unfortunately, my lead poisoning video and the video I'm currently working on turned out to be a lot more ambitious than I expected.
I'm already working on your first four suggestions. I'm hesitant about the fifth point. I've tried the last point many times, but it never really worked out well. I think finding a collaborator who's willing to dedicate time to the project could be really helpful with this.
I worry the other routes to monetization won't provide enough financial security at the current size of the channel for me to be able to reliably output videos.
Thanks for the write-up! I agree with Chris that the natural functions can vary substantially, and Ulrik's comment shows how (another example could be a policy focus in EA DC and EA Brussels). But there are for sure many universal things like the ones you mentioned.
My main nitpick is with the term. I don't see why "local EA groups" isn't good enough. There are already so many abbreviations within the EA movement that it gets overwhelming. If you read "MEAROs" you have no idea what you're talking about without prior context, while "local EA groups" is very clear and not even that long. The term covers points 1 and 2 of your definition ("local" means it's regional and "EA group" already signals it's meta). Differentiating local groups with and without an organizational structure doesn't seem particularly useful. I assume most unstructured local EA groups aspire to get such a structure, and many of the present and future values listed also apply to them.
Don't forget to go to http://www.projectforawesome.com today and vote for videos promoting effective charities like Against Malaria Foundation, The Humane League, GiveDirectly, Good Food Institute, ProVeg, GiveWell and Fish Welfare Initiative!
Not very active, but asking feedback on any type of EA-related writing is also welcome in the #role-writers channel in the EA Anywhere slack: https://www.effectivealtruismanywhere.org/get-involved
Unfortunately the 🔹 emoji doesn't work on Twitter, I assume so it wouldn't be confused with the verification badge.