Non-zero-sum James

Writer / Editor @ Non-Zero-Sum Games
41 karmaJoined Working (15+ years)Auckland, New Zealand
nonzerosum.games

Bio

Strong believer in effective altruism and have taken the giving pledge. My weekly blog at nonzerosum.games is a world-help site of sorts - focussing on win-win games as essential to facing global issues. I explore game-theoretical approaches to real world issues in an accessible way, using illustrations, simulations and badly drawn graphs.

I’m a Documentary filmmaker who has spent over 20 years researching, interviewing and building stories around the world - everything from the war in Afghanistan, to life in inner-city Los Angeles, to an Aussie bloke with 34 dogs. I'm a life long student, with passion for creating a better world.

How others can help me

I am interested in sharing good ideas, discussion, even argument - if you find my work interesting please share it with those you think would be interested. I realise EA is a niche interest, finding those special people requires casting the net wide.

How I can help others

If you would like to write an article to be featured and illustrated on the site I'm open to proposals that are in line with the ethos of the site. Otherwise I hope to help the world by contributing to positive, productive and pro-social solutions to an information-sphere that can otherwise be dominated by negativity and conflict. Please feel free to use any resources on the site, or request I cover a particular topic.

Comments
15

Thanks, I think I may have used the wrong term "source"-based, meaning "origin" or "residence"-based. I was meaning that generally a company is taxed in the country where their offices are, not where their consumers are.

That was refreshing change of pace :) Thanks for posting.

Great article! This seems like a valuable avenue for people with the relevant skills.

I’m interested in your observation that poorer countries tend to prefer a source country-based tax, while wealthier countries lean toward a consumer country-based tax. However, it seems paradoxical that OECD countries, which hold stronger influence over international tax law, have led us to a predominantly source country-based tax system. Could you comment on why think this is the case?

I’ve been interested in the idea of a consumer country-based tax ever since I worked on a film with Thomas Piketty, which loosely covered his Capital in the 21st Century. If I understood his view correctly, a consumer country-based tax could potentially help eliminate tax havens because companies can’t control where their consumers are in the same way they can control where their offices are based.

I'd love to hear your insights about this.

By donating the value of my scholarships, I have likely impacted 50,000 lives, prevented 9 deaths, and significantly improved the lives of thousands of animals.

Numbers leave some people cold, but as with most EAs I'm a big believer in the power of numbers like these, they make me feel warm inside. Thanks for sharing your cash, but also your story, as a fellow pledger, I hope these stories inspire others to do the same.

What are your thoughts about the position of existential risk—and more specifically AI x-risk, as a key concern of Effective Altruism?

I have a sense that while it is a significant and important concern, I'm not sure it falls into the category of "altruism" as opposed to "self-preservation", and considering its current popularity, is there a risk of this concern crowding-out other core altruistic causes around the immediate well-being of those less fortunate or less empowered?

Thanks, yes, I draw them myself on an iPad, lots get recycled when they are relevant to new posts but I usually do 3 or 4 new sketches per post. It’s my little push back against the generative AI Revolution

A really interesting comment, you've obviously had some experience thinking about this from a different angle to me, but nice to see we agree on the positive masculinity types.

  1. Patriarchy: Strangely enough the idea of patriarchy didn't even occur to me while writing this, which is a bit of an admission, as it's obviously relevant! I hadn't conceived of a male-initiated down-with-the-patriarchy movement, but it makes sense, when you point to the way in which patriarchy manipulates the expectations of young men, which inevitably leaves them disappointed and vulnerable to radicalisation.
  2. Gendering ideas: I tend to agree with you, and it was a concern while writing. My reason for going along with the gendering of courage (although I do at three points mention that women also have these attributes) was that I am trying to get at the issue of men who find their masculinity very important, and perceive that it's being denied them, or stripped away, outlawed. By recognising the positive aspects of masculinity, and not denying it I hope not to alienate those who I most want to reach.
  3. Getting outcompeted by liars: I hear you. I may be yelling into the wind, but hopefully if enough of spout enough sense we can drown out the anti-social voices. Or perhaps, if we keep discussing these things we'll come up with more effective argument and convince them with reason... (wishful thinking I know).

Thanks for your critique, I appreciate you helping me hone my ideas and bringing other important pieces to the puzzle. I will check out that video :)

Fair points.

To me courage is doing what you're afraid of doing when you know it's the right thing to do. It has a two-fold definition that protects it somewhat from abuse. Strength for instance does not have this additional aspect. Now, I agree it can go wrong if someone has a flawed idea of what is right, but that's an additional issue that's complicates literally everything—if something had to be immune to a flawed sense of right and wrong then nothing would pass that test. Courage at least requires good intent, and it furthermore requires something difficult, so it guards against convenience too.

To produce a modern positive conception of manliness, I think you need to start from a place of thinking about awesome things men do.

I agree, though in my defence this is exactly what I was trying to do, pointing out men's risk-seeking nature and their ability to do courageous things, as a major positive and trying to apply it to a world where opportunities for exercising courage are different.

Given the world we live in, courage—doing the hard thing when it's the right thing to do, does play out in workplaces and homes, it can play out in physical exploits too (perhaps I could have talked about the thriving rock climbing community of which I am a part) but if you try doing the hard thing for the right reasons even in those mundane situations, I can assure you, from experience it does make you feel more masculine. In saying this, of course (and I clarify this 3 times in the post) courage is not the sole purview of men, women do courageous things all the time—but I think all men can agree that if there is such a thing as masculinity, courage is a significant part of it.

I disagree that saying someone hurt you can't...

...possibly be regarded as a distinctively manly virtue".

I can only say that, from experience, there is a distinctively masculine experience that a man has when they are honest despite their pride or habits. It is the same act—doing the difficult thing—that running toward enemy fire is, and takes a lot more courage to do than the simulacra of courage we take part in when playing Call of Duty for instance.

Exhibiting genuine courage in a different environment, with different variables is not about re-defining courage, it's about finding what that very same courage means in a new context.

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