From Personal Perspective to Social Impact: Launching Altruous with Eric Barela

In this episode, Mike Spear and Eric Barela discuss the launch of their new project, Altruous, and share pieces of their personal backstories of how they got into this work. They highlight the significance of Altruous in addressing social challenges and amplifying unheard voices. The conversation explores the intersection of social justice and personal background, emphasizing the need to recognize and value diverse perspectives. They discuss expected value calculations, the debate between quantitative and qualitative evaluation, the role of human evaluators in an AI-driven world, and the importance of comprehensive evaluation methods. 

“If we're going to pat ourselves on the back for doing good things, then we should actually be doing good things.”

Topics covered:

(00:07:55) The Intersection of Social Justice and Personal Background

(00:15:06) High EV Calculation

(00:21:48) Quantitative vs Qualitative Evaluation

(00:29:11) The Importance of Qualitative and Quantitative Data

(00:38:01) The Role of Human Evaluators in an AI-Driven World

(00:45:47) Shared Passion for Impact Measurement

(00:53:32) Burning Man's Impact and Integrity

(01:00:25) Measuring Impact and Avoiding Harm

(01:07:30) Marks of Success for Altruist

(01:14:48) Democratizing Monitoring and Evaluation

Links mentioned:

https://altruous.org

Guest links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbarela/