HORIZON (瞻遠學者)
Increase your impact and connect with like-minded people
Do you care about doing good? Care about having a meaningful career? Care about effectiveness? Are you working in a related field? Through this free programme, you'll learn the key ideas of Effective Altruism with a small group of other people who care deeply about improving the lives of others in the most effective ways they can. Guided by a facilitator, you will learn new concepts, frameworks and counter intuitive ideas to help you have more impact in your career, donations and other projects.
Next round: Jan 11 & Jan 18 (Saturdays) 2025
Application Deadline: Jan 5
With limited resources, how can we do the most good?
Doing good better is one of the defining challenges of our time. Given resource constraints, it is crucial that we make the most effective use of what we have in order to create the greatest positive impact possible. And this is essentially what the Horizon Programme is all about: The Horizon Programme helps you think about how to do good effectively and helps you to reflect on how to maximise your potential to make a difference.
In 2020, this was the first introductory EA programme in Asia. The Horizon Programme is a free workshop bringing together core reading, interactive group discussions and activities, 1:1 mentoring, and more. We explore topics including the effectiveness mindset, global health/poverty, animal welfare, artificial Intelligence, etc., and how to get involved in careers contributing to some of the world’s most pressing problems.
Dates and times
Introduction to Effective Altruism
The Horizon Programme takes place over two weekends, covering the fundamental concepts of Effective Altruism. Each session is 5 hours (including 1 hour lunch break), involving group discussions and activities with other participants.
Dates: 11th & 18th January 2025 (Saturdays)
Time: 10am to 3pm (including 1 hour lunch break)
Location: The Hive, 8/F Cheung Hing Industrial Building, Kennedy Town
Format: In-person
Cost: Completely FREE
Thinking about your next step: Putting EA into Practice
To cap off the learning, attendees are invited to join a career event where they have the opportunity to meet and hear from three distinguished speakers who have implemented the learning from EA into their own careers and their giving.
Date: TBC
Agenda and Objectives
Introduction to Effective Altruism
Day 1
Registration opens from 9:45am
Session 1.1: Introduction to Principles of Effective Altruism
- Lunch hour -
Session 1.2: Thinking empathically: who and how much?
By the end of the day, you will...
Know:
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Facts about how far humanity has come, and how much room for improvement exists
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Some main EA cause areas
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Something about the EA landscape in Hong Kong
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The definition of scope insensitivity
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The idea of an expanding moral circle
Understand:
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Four basic ideas you agree with that lead to the logical conclusion of EA
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The fundamental principles of EA effectiveness mindset, including impartiality
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Inspiration/Optimism about human trajectory and individual capacity to do as much good as possible
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The need to overcome scope insensitivity
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The possibility of an ongoing moral catastrophe
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That debate around the moral patienthood of non-human animals
Be able to:
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Use online resources from the EA internet to explore cause areas of interest.
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Use double cruxing as a technique to collaboratively resolve disagreements
Day 2
Session 1.3: Thinking rationally about global health
Lunch hour
Session 1.4: Thinking long-term
By the end of the day, you will...
Know:
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The definition of the scout mindset
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Differences in impact are huge
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How to use the ITN framework
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The definition of existential risks, existential catastrophe, longtermism
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The future is vast and humanity’s potential is large
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Future people deserve moral patienthood
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Now is a point of unusual influence over humanity’s future
Understand:
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Our intuitions are often wrong
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Our intuitions about frequency, probability and scale are often wrong.
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Our intuitions about global health are often wrong
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The moral imperative toward cost-effectiveness in global health
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The reasoning for axiological strong longtermism (ASL)
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Some arguments for/against strong longtermism
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Implications for international and Asian philanthropy
Be able to:
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Make more calibrated estimates
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Do expected value calculations
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Make Fermi estimates
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Use the ITN framework to think about cause prioritisation
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Explain in brief the reasoning for axiological strong longtermism (ASL)
Thinking about your next step: Putting EA into Practice
In addition to Horizon Programme, EAHK organises a standalone 1.5hr introductory session to support individuals in discovering ways to make real-world impact. The topics covered include:
f
The landscape of EA and opportunities to take action
Three Guest Speakers
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Sharing their career journeys
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Q&A
Taking Action with EAHK and Beyond
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Booking a 1-1 chat with a career advisor.
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Joining the Community Building team
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Volunteer projects
Past speakers include:
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Jenny Xiao
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VC Fellow at Leonis Capital, investing in Early-Stage AI Startups.
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PhD (ABD) at Columbia University on the International Political Economy of AI
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Andy Tao
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Finance associate at Effective Ventures Foundation
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Former renewable energy data analyst at Bloomberg
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Cynthia Chen
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PhD student at ETH Zurich; AI alignment researcher
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TSE Yip Fai
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Researcher on animal ethics for artificial intelligence at Princeton University; Research assistant to Peter Singer
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Former strategy consultant at Mercy for Animals.
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Austin Zhang
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Trader at Jane Street
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Anthony Lau
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Director of Effective Altruism Hong Kong
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