Aaron Gertler
aarongertler.bsky.social
Aaron Gertler
@aarongertler.bsky.social
Comms officer @ Open Philanthropy, former Magic pro, webfiction connoisseur. https://aarongertler.net/
Reposted by Aaron Gertler
I'm usually a fan of Zeynep's work, but this piece gets things exactly backwards. Her core argument is that DeepSeek makes "nonsense" of US efforts to contain the spread of AI, which have largely involved restricting the types of AI chips China can access. 🧵
February 5, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Aaron Gertler
One of my party facts is that according to polls, Americans believe foreign aid is about 25% of the federal budget and on average that it *should* be about 10%.

The actual number is less than 1%.

Foreign aid has long been a boogey man of the right, so it's not surprising they're vilifying it now.
February 2, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Aaron Gertler
Thousands of people, mostly kids, will die for no reason because of this
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/...
February 1, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Semipro gamer update: Just made about $600 in five hours over three Sealed leagues! And $1800 over the weekend, all through Arena Direct.

As with all my gaming wins, 100% goes to charity — in this case, GiveWell.
January 26, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Aaron Gertler
I just got the kids down for naptime so I wanted to take a second to point out two key problems (and a few areas of agreement) I see with this morning’s @emmagoldberg.bsky.social @nytimes.com article about effective altruism: 🧵
bsky.app/profile/nyt...
The New York Times (@nytimes.com)
Effective altruism, the recent trend in philanthropy, has been to look for the most bang for your buck. Maybe you don’t have to, Emma Goldberg argues. https://nyti.ms/41GHinN
bsky.app
December 7, 2024 at 11:57 PM
Arena Open, Day 2: 4-0 in the first draft!

I thought this was a complete trainwreck, but Snarespinner and Squad Rallier are busted with double Archdruid. Genesis Wave won several games, too. This format has more depth than I initially appreciated!
December 1, 2024 at 4:45 PM
This kind of post is a reason I loved running the Forum! Nearly any experience can be mined for public utility if you squint.
Cooking up a banger forum post
November 29, 2024 at 9:39 PM