This is the written version of a talk I gave on April 11 for a virtual event of Effective Altruism Philippines. The poster for the event is below. I gave an introduction to EA after the main talk by Kenneth Abante.

It’s almost the end of 2019 already, and it’s been quite a year. It’s time for me to write an “annual report” again for myself. I started doing this in 2016, and I continued it in 2017 and 2018. In these annual reports, I make a list of my highlights…

Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown created a detailed guide with multiple case studies of how to acquire, retain, and generate more revenue from customers. — I first heard of the term “Growth Hacking” back in 2015. It was the year I first became interested in tech startups, and I looked up to startup founders and their ability to create large, impactful companies quickly. I wanted to figure out how to emulate them, so I read…

I’ve been working for almost 4 months already as a Product Designer at First Circle — a fintech company that provides better access to financing for SMEs in the Philippines.

My Rating — 9.5/10: Daniel Kahneman, the world-famous psychologist and behavioral economist, summarized decades of academic research into one amazing and insightful book. — I’ve heard about the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” since 2015. I’ve seen it in local bookstores, heard of Barack Obama recommending it, and have seen it in top book lists online. But I couldn’t really find the motivation to read it.

This book of the philosopher Peter Singer is a deep dive into Effective Altruism, and it’s a great read for people looking to do more good with their time and money. — I read this book a couple months back, but I didn’t have time to finish my book review on it. But because I think it’s such an important book, I decided to re-read parts of it and finish my review. For people that know me, Effective Altruism (or EA) is…

My Rating: 9.5/10 — Benjamin Todd, Co-Founder of 80,000 Hours, outlines all the research on how to have a fulfilling, high-impact career, and why “follow your passion” can be bad advice. — Ever since I first visited the website 80000hours.org in 2017, my mindset has shifted dramatically about how I think about my life and career. However, I only got to read their book featuring all their career advice recently, but it was a timely and amazing read.

My Rating: 8/10 — Erika Hall, Co-Founder of Mule Design, created a great playbook for anyone to do various kinds of research, whether for studying your users, competitors, or product. — A few weeks ago, I saw a job post made by a designer I respect about him looking to hire for various design roles at his company. Since I’m looking for a job, I got intrigued. …

My Rating — 8.5/10: Nir Eyal’s book teaches the step-by-step process that social media and consumer apps use to keep people coming back every day. — Since I have more free time this month, I picked up Nir Eyal’s book Hooked as something to read to further my knowledge in User Experience Design. I’ve had this book since a few years ago, but I remember finding it too complex (and somewhat boring) to read back then.