I have become nocturnal. I couldn't get to sleep on the night of Day 6, I slept through all of the sessions on Day 7, then I stayed awake through the party on the night of Day 7, caught my 8am flight and am now having lunch in Vancouver and looking forward to going to bed ASAP. So instead of telling you about all of the wonderful presentations delivered on our final day, I will tell you about the 7 main things that I will take away from these 7 days.
1. Inspiration to behave more rationally. I hope that the two similar summits I have coming up over the next couple of months will keep this inspiration alive.
2. A repertoire of tricks and habits that I have begun to develop that will enable me to work more productively.
3. Excitement about the speed with which the effective altruism movement is growing and the expectation that growth will continue at this speed for the next couple of years (then I suspect we will probably encounter either a significant problem or significant growth).
4. Optimism about the various effective altruism groups working together.
5. At the same time, awareness of the importance of good relationships within the movement. I would like to spend more time and effort working on preventing interpersonal conflicts.
6. New friends!
7. And, in the words of a beautiful song written by one of the attendees, the idea that “Tomorrow can be brighter than today”.