Doing Good Better for Technologists

Hi there  —  

Welcome to the very first Effective Altruism Software Engineering newsletter.  So glad to have you reading along with our small but mighty crew of 60+ subscribers from around the world. 

Each month, we provide a debrief of Software Engineering content relevant to EA.  We'll summarize activity on the EA Forum, Facebook, Discord, and Slack, and wrap up with Jobs and Related Resources.

If you want to say hi, send us feedback, or share another source we should look at for EA Software Engineering info, please shoot us an email.

Interpretability Research Hackathon - participate virtually or in-person in London, Aarhus, and Tallinn (Fri, 11/11 - Sun, 11/13) to advance research in AI safety.  Cash prize up to $1,000.

Hackathon on Mon, 12/5 to follow EAGxBerkeley - software engineers and curious non-technical folk invited to 10am - 5pm hackathon in Berkeley.You do not have to have attended EAGxBerkeley to attend the Hackathon.  Submit and vote on project ideas in the comments section of the linked post.

Which AI Safety Org to Join? - advice for software engineers seeking a career in AI safety.

The internet town square doesn't have to suck - a perspective on social media ownership, highlighting the challenges associated with private for-profit ownership and a potential model for cooperative ownership. 

Ongoing project to improve the EA Forum - in exchange for $20, complete a 15 minute survey about fullstack software engineering job recommendations for AI safety.

An interesting conversation in #careers on how to "get good" at software development without sacrificing all your free time.  A summary:

• Some combination of practice and mentoring 
• Internships can be great if you're a student
• Open Source Software (OSS) maintainers will implicitly or explicitly trade mentoring for contributions
• It's also possible to learn mostly on the job given the right work environment and a team that enjoys mentoring.
• Gamification through participating in competitions can make learning feel less like studying
• Consider writing a blog on your own or through an existing publication such as Medium's Better Programming or DEV Community
• Also check out local Meetup groups

Updates from EA Public Interest Computing (EPIC) Slack have been covered elsewhere in the newsletter this month.  We encourage you to join us on Slack and get the conversation started!

Metaculus is building a team dedicated to AI forecasting - open roles include Machine Learning Engineer, Research Analyst, and Quantitative Research Analyst.  All positions remote.

Good Food Institute is hiring for two technical positions - Lead Web Developer and Marketing Automation Specialist

An interesting Twitter thread about public interest tech roles

Monthly Overload of EA - a summary of EA Forum posts from the past month, segmented by cause area

Alignment Newsletter - AI Safety debrief 

See ya next month 👋

Nicole Janeway Bills