Events we've organized

Sunday, 12 June 2022, 19:00 at Treffpunkt Freiburg.
Our regular meeting on Sunday, 12 June 2022, consisted of a series of very short talks, prepared by different members of our group. Each talk treated one important source of knowledge and support for effective altruists, be it a book, a website, an EA-aligned NGO or a podcast. This is another topic intended to be suitable for people with only a little bit of preliminary EA knowledge.

May to July 2022, online or in person, application until 11 May.

If you're new to EA, you may take part in an introductory course. These so-called Fellowships take place in small groups over the course of a semester. If you can find sufficiently many interested people in Freiburg, you can join a group for discussion in presence. Otherwise you will certainly find a place in one of the online groups, which discuss EA basics in both English and German. The programme consists of four meetings, with the option to extend to eight weeks. Additionally, there will be further socials, projects, one-on-ones and, at the end, a retreat in summer.

Here you find further information and the application form (in German). And here is a poster (also in German):

Sunday, 29 May 2022, 19:00 at Treffpunkt Freiburg.
In order to have a free Pentecoste break, we shifted our rhythm and continued our meetings already on Sunday, 29 May. This time, we read Part A of Eliezer Yudkowsky's book "Rationality: From AI to Zombies" in advance and discussed its contents in the group. The book, which developed as a series of blog posts, can be found at https://www.readthesequences.com. Yudkowsky is a decision theorist, AI researcher and the founder of the LessWrong community blog, whose community is intertwined with the Effective Altruism community. His "sequences" have become a standard source on how to refine one's rationality and reasoning. Predictably Wrong, the part we discussed, is an introduction to cognitive biases present in all humans. It is a read of at least an hour, but there is so much to discuss that one could join also after just skimming or picking the most appealing bits.

Sunday, 22 May 2022, 18:00 at Sternwaldwiese.
On Sunday, 22 May, we wanted to meet at the Sternwaldwiese for another social event, starting at 6 pm. The plan was to have a campfire and a barbecue with some food contributed by everyone. But due to the bad weather forecast, we moved everything to one of our members' places, with soft drinks and beer provided. One could use the occasion to ask any questions about EA or rationality, to pick up the lively discussion we had in the meeting before or just to have fun hanging out with people.

Sunday, 8 May 2022, 19:00-20:30, Treffpunkt Freiburg, Foyer.

Our first content-oriented meeting since we kicked off the summer term with our introductory talk took place on Sunday, 8 May 2022, at 19:00. We had a short talk and a subsequent discussion on climate change as a cause area in effective altruism. We all know that climate change is a massive and urgent problem. EA is no exception here. But some aspects of the problem become particularly interesting when viewed through the EA lens. It is also a good example by which to get to grips with core concepts and common misunderstandings about EA.

Thursday, 28 April 2022, 18:30-19:30, Kollegiengebäude I, Hörsaal 1108.

At the beginning of the summer term, we offered an introductory talk about Effective Altruism. On 28 April, in a short talk and in personal conversation with us, you could learn what EA is about and where to go for further information on how to do the most good. The talk began at 18:30 in Lecture Hall 1108 of the university's Kollegiengebäude I. Here are some impressions.

Afterwards we continued the discussion informally in an Indian restaurant in the neighbourhood.