The Nonlinear Library: LessWrong LW - Please support this blog (with money) by Elizabeth
Aug 17, 2024
08:59
Link to original article
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Please support this blog (with money), published by Elizabeth on August 17, 2024 on LessWrong.
Short version
It has always felt like a gift that people read things I write, and I enjoyed reciprocating that by sharing my writing for free. Until recently I had enough income to pull that off and still cover material needs. That is no longer true, and while it is not an urgent problem, I would like to solve it while that is still true. However it's important to me to keep this blog free. To square this, I'm asking for your support.
If you value this blog and can comfortably do so, please consider sending some of that value back my way via Patreon or Paypal.
Long version
I love my work and this blog. Clients paying me to learn interesting things that they immediately use to help people would be amazing on its own, but then grantmakers pay me to do more speculative EV projects of my choosing. Then I get to publish my work and help more people. I'm incredibly fortunate to do this, and at a wage that supports a good lifestyle in a reasonable number of hours.
Unfortunately, I can't work a reasonable number of hours. It's been years since I could work a full work-week, but until recently I could still work enough. That stopped being true this winter (short version: furniture grew mold leading to a devastating health cascade). I spent months barely able to work while firehosing money at the medical system (ballpark total cost: $100,000, plus an intense desire to own my own home).
I'm doing much better although not fully healed now and God willing this was a one time thing, but 10 years ago I needed a year off work for dental surgery, and I'll consider myself lucky if it takes 10 years before my next "one off" multi-month health problem. My limited hours in good times aren't enough to make up for the total absence of hours in bad times.
Disability insurance refused to sell to me at any price back when I had an excellent work attendance record and very minor medical issues, so I assume they'd use a flamethrower if I tried now. This has me interested in finding ways to decouple my income from my working hours.
The obvious thing to do is monetize this blog. Except I hate gating zero-marginal-cost content, especially health content. It keeps out the people who most need the help. It's also hard to match price to value - any given post could be a waste of your time or a life changing intervention, and you may not know which for years. So I don't want to do any kind of paywall. Instead, I'm asking for voluntary contributions, based on your evaluation of the value my work has provided you.
That way you can match price to value, no one gets locked out of content they need, and I can invest in this blog while staying financially secure.
How to give me money
If you'd like to make a one-time payment, you can paypal me at acesounderglass@gmail.com. This will get me caught up on this winter's lost income and medical expenses. If your generosity exceeds Paypal's petty limitations or you just prefer a different format, email me at that same address and we'll work something out.
If you would like to give ongoing support, you can join my Patreon. This will let me spend more time on my top-choice project and invest more in this blog on an ongoing basis. I've recently added real rewards to my patreon, including a discord, live calls for each post, and for the most discerning of patrons, all the plankton you can eat. For the moment these are experimental, and you can help me out by telling me what you'd like to see.
If you're already a Patreon patron - first of all, thank you. Second, take a look at the new tiers. I'm not allowed to switch you to reward tiers even if you're already giving enough to qualify for them, and the $1 tier has been removed.
If you would like to give one-time support to spe...
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Please support this blog (with money), published by Elizabeth on August 17, 2024 on LessWrong.
Short version
It has always felt like a gift that people read things I write, and I enjoyed reciprocating that by sharing my writing for free. Until recently I had enough income to pull that off and still cover material needs. That is no longer true, and while it is not an urgent problem, I would like to solve it while that is still true. However it's important to me to keep this blog free. To square this, I'm asking for your support.
If you value this blog and can comfortably do so, please consider sending some of that value back my way via Patreon or Paypal.
Long version
I love my work and this blog. Clients paying me to learn interesting things that they immediately use to help people would be amazing on its own, but then grantmakers pay me to do more speculative EV projects of my choosing. Then I get to publish my work and help more people. I'm incredibly fortunate to do this, and at a wage that supports a good lifestyle in a reasonable number of hours.
Unfortunately, I can't work a reasonable number of hours. It's been years since I could work a full work-week, but until recently I could still work enough. That stopped being true this winter (short version: furniture grew mold leading to a devastating health cascade). I spent months barely able to work while firehosing money at the medical system (ballpark total cost: $100,000, plus an intense desire to own my own home).
I'm doing much better although not fully healed now and God willing this was a one time thing, but 10 years ago I needed a year off work for dental surgery, and I'll consider myself lucky if it takes 10 years before my next "one off" multi-month health problem. My limited hours in good times aren't enough to make up for the total absence of hours in bad times.
Disability insurance refused to sell to me at any price back when I had an excellent work attendance record and very minor medical issues, so I assume they'd use a flamethrower if I tried now. This has me interested in finding ways to decouple my income from my working hours.
The obvious thing to do is monetize this blog. Except I hate gating zero-marginal-cost content, especially health content. It keeps out the people who most need the help. It's also hard to match price to value - any given post could be a waste of your time or a life changing intervention, and you may not know which for years. So I don't want to do any kind of paywall. Instead, I'm asking for voluntary contributions, based on your evaluation of the value my work has provided you.
That way you can match price to value, no one gets locked out of content they need, and I can invest in this blog while staying financially secure.
How to give me money
If you'd like to make a one-time payment, you can paypal me at acesounderglass@gmail.com. This will get me caught up on this winter's lost income and medical expenses. If your generosity exceeds Paypal's petty limitations or you just prefer a different format, email me at that same address and we'll work something out.
If you would like to give ongoing support, you can join my Patreon. This will let me spend more time on my top-choice project and invest more in this blog on an ongoing basis. I've recently added real rewards to my patreon, including a discord, live calls for each post, and for the most discerning of patrons, all the plankton you can eat. For the moment these are experimental, and you can help me out by telling me what you'd like to see.
If you're already a Patreon patron - first of all, thank you. Second, take a look at the new tiers. I'm not allowed to switch you to reward tiers even if you're already giving enough to qualify for them, and the $1 tier has been removed.
If you would like to give one-time support to spe...