I liked that you started by generating profiles from the EA survey. When I got the email about it, it made me feel like I'd been invited to join the site.

Is there any kind of discussion area on the website? I looked for one and couldn't find it. (I know there are EA forums for this; I was just being a confused user because "community site" implied blog or forum, to me.)

Reading over the other comments, I think a lot of this is about finding the right schelling point.

This past summer, I put a bunch of reminders spaced out by a month or two into my google calendar that say "make effective altruist plan" - the idea being to make some sort of contract with myself before I graduate and get a regular income again, and sit down and think about what goes into that contract many different times before actually "signing" (which will probably be showing it to a trusted friend or two and asking them to help hold me to it with social pressure). I'm probably at an advantage timing-wise, since I'm able to think about it while having some idea what my finances will be like (I've lived on my own while working a long internship, so I have a rough idea about groceries and rent and things), and before much chance of lifestyle inflation and hedonic adaptation happening.

I expect most of my donations will happen once I've got my career figured out. Right now, I think that will mean having a collection of small business activities that I can live off of, and end up with a really large surplus if I do well which I could donate, but something totally different could happen if I find I'm not cut out for self-employment. The contract is mainly about setting something up so that I stay in the habit of donating large-ish amounts, so that I won't be as likely to feel uncomfortable and change my mind if I get rich.

10% seems to be the most common schelling point, so I started from there. But that didn't feel like it was leaving me enough surplus to save as business-starting money. The current draft of the contract says 5% donated at whatever time of year it makes financial sense to (I know a lot of people base donations on tax seasons), 5% saved in an account that's only to be used for investing in things that I expect to be worthwhile profit-wise (likely my own projects). Money I use out of that savings account would be recorded, and that amount would eventually be donated later. If I don't use the account, it gets donated.

If you're worried about unpredictable expenses (like medical bills), maybe the charity-or-specific-other-use savings account would make sense for you? Also, if you've already got a full budget, looking first at where you'd cut back to make room for charity might make more sense than abstract percentages.

I do not believe Eliezer makes that mistake.

People around here use utilitarianism to mean a few different things.

I don't understand. One of those things is "compare the options, and choose the one with the best consequences". What are the other things?

If I understand correctly, people become utilitarians because they think that global suffering/well-being have such big values that all the other values don't really matter (this is what I see every time someone tries to argue for utilitarianism, (2) please correct me if I'm wrong). I think a lot of people don't share this view, and therefore, before trying to convince them they should choose utilitarianism as their morality, you first need to convince them about the value of harm-pleasure.

Soylent Orange is open source, we're keeping MealSquares proprietary for now.

it just seems to be a variant on Soylent

D:
It's my company (along with my cofounder, John Maxwell, who is also a user here.) It's easily twice as rational as Soylent.

Hey, I'm in Rochester, and, though it's hard to get to Buffalo, I'd really like to work on rationality skills with others. Do you have meetings in Buffalo often, and how should I stay in the loop about them?

Get a credit card with no annual fee (preferably one with 1% cash back). Pay absolutely everything with card (only rent/mortgage, loan payments, and utilities should be paid in a different way, and that's only because they don't accept credit card). Pay it off in full once every month (the same date every month, and only once a month) before the due date so you never give the credit card company anything more than the actual cost of what you bought.

This makes it incredibly easy to track your finances. Rent/mortgage and loan payments are fixed. If you make a steady monthly wage you know exactly how much money you are getting every month and exactly how much you have left for all non-loan expenditures. That number should be at least $100 more than you pay to the credit card to pay off your past month of living every month.

When you bank more than usual in a month you feel awesome. When you have to pay more than you made in a month you realize immediately and can take quick steps to curtail it.

This also gives you real-world data as to what living costs, helping you to avoid the planning fallacy.

socks/underwear

Find what is best for you, and buy a lot of them. Then you can ignore this topic for a long time.

If you buy more identical pairs of socks, if some of them get destroyed, you can make pairs of the remaining ones. On the other hand, if you buy similar pairs, you will waste a lot of time sorting them.

Mattress

...and a pillow (or two). Try different sizes and shapes.

Kitchen accessories

For example a cutting board should be large and easy to wash. An increased size can make cutting much easier.