[Originally posted on Substack —cross-posted on the EA Forum]

I’ve been a vegetarian (nearly vegan) for 6 years.

As veteran vegetarians (vetereginarians?) know, vitamin B12 isn’t really found in plants, and so people who don’t eat animals are often deficient in this important nutrient.

I’m not exactly sure how this information eluded me for all this time, but I only found out about the whole B12 thing a few months ago…

An EA friend of mine gently told me “Aaron, I’m really glad you’re a vegetarian, but that means you gotta take B12 supplements.”

He told this to me out…

[Originally published on Substack — subscribe here!]

I’m typing these words from Maui.

Why am I living in Maui, you ask?

Of course, asking the question reveals its obvious answer: why not live in Maui?

In the last decade, and particularly in the last year, we have witnessed a cultural shift that has upended a long established trend: urbanization.

It’s important to identify why these trends are happening if we hope to understand what our futures may look like, and we can attribute these trends to three key factors.

The first and most dominant factor is the advent and popularization…

[Originally published on the EA Forum and cross-posted on Substack]

I love Effective Altruism. ❤

That’s not an exaggeration — I truly love the community and the way I’ve grown as a result of joining the movement.

I first heard about EA back in 2013 when its messaging was pretty straightforward: use data to donate to more effective charities that will alleviate the suffering of the global poor.

Now, the scope of EA has broadened significantly, and the number of people who subscribe to the philosophy of EA has also ballooned.

For the record, I think this is fabulous and…

[Originally posted on Substack — sign up here]

One feeling that is almost universally reviled is the sensation of being wrong.

We loathe being made aware of when we are incorrect, at fault, or misguided in our thinking.

From the embarrassment of confidently stating something inaccurate and being quickly fact-checked by a friend’s over eager smartphone at a cocktail party, to the gut-sinking sensation of seeing a police officer in your rearview mirror as you realize you’ve been speeding, we bristle and chafe against the knowledge of our wrongdoing.

And yet most of us have the good sense to quietly…

[Originally posted on Substack — sign up here]

Conscientiousness is the awareness of how your actions and behaviors are perceived by others.

Everything you do or say in a social context is going to be mediated through the senses of another person — and what is clearly and readily expressed by you may not be clearly and readily understood by them.

Conscientious people are aware of the delta between expression and perception.

To be conscientious of your own behavior and speech is to be mindful of how your actions and words will be received, processed, and internalized.

Unfortunately, we don’t…

[Originally posted on Substack — sign up here]

I’ve been thinking a lot about colleges recently.

College is exciting and stimulating for many reasons, but in my experience, the best part of school was the ability to meet people (whether after classes or in clubs) and be quite confident that I would have a positive interaction.

I felt as if I had something to learn from every encounter, and that was a strong motivator for me to get outside my dorm room and be sociable. …

[Originally posted on Substack — it’s much cooler. Subscribe here]

Philosophers who study ethics spend all day thinking about what makes a person good and what makes a person bad.

After a couple millennia, the jury is still out, but we’ve got a few preliminary results.

Murder = bad.

Curing diseases = good.

Of course, most of us know intuitively what constitutes good and bad ethical behavior, but where our everyday moral thinking differs from that of the philosopher comes down to the labels we ascribe to the people behind the actions.

Sometimes, people mistakenly extrapolate their judgments about actions…

[Originally posted on Substack — subscribe here to follow along]

When working on their startups or personal projects, some entrepreneurs believe that their limitless passion and endless enthusiasm will be able to carry them through the dark days and buoy them in times of doubt.

But successful entrepreneurs realize that this is a naïve hope.

In actual fact, our motivation is a finite resource.

There are only so many days we can withstand the brutal hours, the thankless little tasks that pile up, the feeling of loneliness, and the disappointment of failure. …