What to Link to
- Joe’s talk on youtube
- Joe’s first twitter thread
- Andy’s post about Joe’s talk
- You might also link other quote tweets of Joe’s talk to more targeted audiences. See the praise thread
- Ellie’s talk on youtube
- Ellie’s twitter thread
Blurbs for Newsletters & Showings
New Talk by Joe Edelman
Joe developed the meaning-based organizational metrics at Couchsurfing.com, then co-founded the Center for Humane Technology with Tristan Harris, and coined the term “Time Well Spent” for a family of metrics adopted by teams at Facebook, Google, and Apple.
His new talk focuses on designing tech products (and a tech industry) that support people in lives well lived. Here’s how he lays it out:
First, I define of “meaningful living” precisely enough to create surveys, metrics, and aligned ML models, etc—so we can monitor whether systems are destructive of people’s meaningful living, and design systems to support it.
Then, I give a concrete design “toolkit”, developed over 6 years with hundreds of designers, to make things “meaningful on purpose” and to keep them that way. It’s been used to design everything from local events, to social apps with millions of active users.
Finally, I cover problems with meaning and the social fabric that emerge at large scales—such as with global social networks, operating systems, app stores, and markets. And, again, gives solutions.
The talk has redesigns of Twitter and TikTok, and many immediately useful design methods you can use with your team.
From Casper ter Kuile, author of How We Gather, and Care of Souls.
If you’re building community or creating spaces for people to connect around shared values, this is highly recommended. Worth the 80 minutes, which I don’t say lightly!
From Ryan Lowe, Alignment Researcher at OpenAI 🐦
Joe et al.’s work on meaning has significantly shifted my thinking about alignment in the last 6 months. The talk is good and worth checking out!
From Kerry Vaughan, one of the Founders of the EA Movement 🐦
Joe and @ellie__hain bring me hope for a future that is more beautiful and compatible with human flourishing than the world we're currently in. This is one of the most exciting things happening right now.
From James Tamplin, YC Founder, ex-CEO Firebase 🐦
The talk @edelwax released today frames a major structural problem in society eloquently, and it has changed my thinking on building products. Strongly recommend!
From Tara Baumgarten, Education Design Lab 🐦
Discovering Joe's talk was like finally seeing a whole dimension of our work (as educators) I could feel, but haven't been able to articulate before.
From Minyoung Hwang, startup founder
I watched the 1 hr intro video and it completely shifted my thinking on the B2C product I'm currently building. We've already altered our design research approach as a result and I am so excited to continue learning about creating meaningful solutions for the world.”
From Oliver Klingefjord, AI Researcher 🐦
This is what humane tech should have been - concrete & actionable. Very excited that @edelwax and @ellie__hain ’s work is now publicly available!
From David Glass, Startup Founder 🐦
Joe's method for precisely articulating your values from the texture of your real life experiences literally changed how I interpret reality & listen to my emotions I'm clearly biased, but these are hard won insights into how we can create meaningful lives for ourselves & others
From Daniel Thorson, Director of the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth 🐦
Emotions to values has been breaking open my mind since I saw that table on your phone screen two years ago in Berlin.
Ric is seeing you@ricvolpe・05/05/2022
Values awareness may also bring me closer to my family. Not in the sense that I spend more time with them, but in the sense that I recognise them for what they live for and I respect that difference without feeling coerced by it
Jim Rutt@jim_rutt・12/30/2022
Yo Elon, Joe is "the man" on the measurable concept of "time well spent". You should talk to him.
Anne-Lorraine 🍓@AnneSelke・09/11/2021
These thoughts, practices & people have shaped how I set up & move through social spaces... more than anything else in my adult life?! It still feels like a ridiculously powerful cheat code for being a human among humans.
“It really has resonated more with me than anything in a long time. [This changes how everything can be designed. I’ve already started trying to apply it to the design of the alternative school that I’ve co-founded.]” — Jan Behrenbeck jan@42wolfsburg.de
“Fundamental metaphors for a fundamental restructuring of our digital world.” — Rhys Lindmark
“This is what humane tech should have been - concrete & actionable.” — Oliver Klingefjord
“Brings me a lot of hope for a future that is more beautiful and compatible with human flourishing than the world we're currently in.” — Kerry Vaughan
“Joe's method for precisely articulating your values from the texture of your real life experiences literally changed how I interpret reality & listen to my emotions. These are hard won insights into how we can create meaningful lives for ourselves & others.” — David Glass
“Joe et al.’s work on meaning has significantly shifted my thinking about alignment in the last 6 months.” — Ryan Lowe, OpenAI Alignment
“This looks like the grail.” — Ellie Young
From youtube
Where to Share
- https://www.nplusonemag.com
- logic mag
- new public
- https://return.life/
- psychology of tech int - jake orthw
- respond / vervaeke
How to Write Your Own Post or Thread
Relevant Communities
Pick one or two communities you’re adjacent to.
Tech
- AI Alignment
ML(23rd)
- Social product people
Social Media(26th)
- Community entrepreneurs
Community(27th)
ellie’s talk too
- Design innovators
Values Cards(25th)
Social Media(26th)
- Humane tech
Social Media(26th)
- Integrity workers & social impact
Values Cards(25th)
Social Media(26th)
- Introspection pioneers
Values Cards(25th)
ellie’s talk too
- Metascience entrepreneurs
Social Media(26th)
- Recommender systems
ML(23rd)
- Tools for thought
Social Media(26th)
Scientists & Researchers
- AI Alignment
ML(23rd)
- Recommender systems
ML(23rd)
- Critics of capitalist incentives and how they affect ML and design
ML(23rd)
ellie’s talk too
- Economics of values-based choice
Ethics&Econ(20th)
- Introspection pioneers
Values Cards(25th)
ellie’s talk too
- Measuring wellbeing/trust/social fabric
Values Cards(25th)
- Metascience & progress studies
Social Media(26th)
Design theory(19th)
- Philosophy of values / virtue ethics
Values Cards(25th)
- Social media policy & sociology
Social Media(26th)
- Tech ethics / AI ethics
Design theory(19th)
- Value-sensitive designers
Values Cards(25th)
Etc
- Community entrepreneurs
Community(27th)
- Meaning Crisis / Game B
Design theory(19th)
- Personal growth
Values Cards(25th)
- Values at corporations
Values Cards(25th)
Or, for Ellie’s talk
- intellectually inclinded community entrepreneurs
- intellectually inclined activists or movement builders
- intellectually inclined creatives and web3 enthusiasts
- intellectually inclined introspection pioneers, “ecology of practices” people
Thoughts leaders, influencers, or people interested in these spheres:
- future visions (technoutopianism, solarpunk, regen, greenpill, etc)
- EAs and post-EAs who are looking for a more humane alternative to change the world
- vitality
- plurality
- post-liberalism
- post-rationality, TPOT
- new religion and spitiruality (neotrads, neocaths, buddhists, new new age etc)
- meaning crisis
- metacrisis, systems change, spiritual capitalism
- human flourishing, positive psychology and personal development
Thread Templates
- “x part of this talk CHANGED HOW I THINK about Y”
- “x part… changed HOW I APPROACH y (where y is something I work on).”
- “x part… changed HOW I APPROACH y (where y is something I work on).”
- “x part… GAVE ME HOPE for y (when previously I had none)”
- “People WHO HAVE ATTRIBUTE X (like me), should watch this talk! (because…)”