As part of my broader project, Intentional Insights, to spread rational thinking and Effective Altruism, I want to create some Effective Altruism merchandise, and I would appreciate your feedback and ideas on doing so.
The goal of this merchandise would be for Effective Altruists to wear it both as a signal of their affiliation with the movement and to prompt non-EAs to talk to them about it. In other words, the merchandise would both help build community with fellow EAs since the merchandise would make EAs feel closer to each other and also remind each other of their commitment, but also serve as a means of outreach to others. All profit made on the merchandise would go to the cause of promoting Effective Altruism and rational thinking effectively.
Intentional Insights already has merchandise designed to convey rational thinking, with slogans such as "Glad To Change My Mind," "Less Wrong Every Day," "Please Provide An Example," and others. I would like to integrate some explicitly EA-themed slogans into this set, following the same format. Namely I'd appreciate ideas for slogans with 6 words or less that convey crucial ideas about the EA movement that would be engaging for non-EA members, without using jargon, and that you or other EAs you know would likely wear on a T-shirt.
For example, a good slogan might be "Doing Good Effectively By Using Reason" since it fits both purposes, of cultivating an EA community and reminding each other of our commitments, and also of prompting others to ask us about how we do good effectively by using reason. A poor one would be "Optimizing QALYs By Consequentialist Utilitarianism" since that fulfills only the first purpose, but not the second, as it contains three words that most non-EAs would be unlikely to know.
Thanks for any ideas you have, and please upvote and comment on posts whose slogans you most approve.
P.S. This article is part of the EA Marketing Resource Bank project lead by Intentional Insights and the Local Effective Altruism Network, with support from The Life You Can Save.
In general, I like the idea of having something to wear that promotes discussion. It's especially useful for introverts like myself who have trouble bringing up EA in social contexts, but have no problem responding to questions about my shirt and using that as an introduction to EA.
The shirt given out at EA Global was good, as it just has the term "Effective Altruism" which tends to prompt questions. The shirt GiveWell sells is also excellent, as they are a very well named organization. But "Doing Good Effectively by Using Reason" seems clunky to me. I believe it is too long and it feels more pompous than something shorter like "GiveWell".
Contrary to what you've written, I actually think something like "Optimizing QALYs" might actually be good. It's short, easy to read, doesn't sound pompous, and will definitely prompt a question of what it means in a social situation. That is the kind of shirt that I'd actually wear and find useful.
Other shirts I'd find useful would be for various well-named organizations, like "Animal Charity Evaluators", "Giving What We Can", "Charity Science", etc. These don't even need slogans; they can use their name/logo alone, and I think I'd find the shirt useful.
We put some shirts together, what do you think? http://www.cafepress.com/intentional_merchandise/13220189