Empowering altruists to

  i) maximize their lifetime impact

  ii) become their best selves

  iii) take care of themselves

How I create long-term change for you

You’ll get a space for going deep on what’s most important to you facilitated by someone who’s an attentive listener, a curious soul, and genuinely cares about your flourishing. Having such a space while getting the undivided attention of another thoughtful and capable person is effective. Two minds tend to be better than one.

I feel a commitment to both who you are now and who you are capable of being. Most of the time, you’ll feel my warmth and curiosity about what you want to work on right now. Other times, I’ll use my expertise and outside view to suggest different directions. Collaboratively balancing these two commitments is difficult and that’s why we’ll co-create a feedback culture.

I’ve spent 7 years studying, co-creating, and “living” effective altruism – doing the most good via impartial altruism and truth-seeking. I compassionately support you in expanding your circle of morality and contribution to the world while caring for yourself. Additionally, I support you in seeking truth (e.g., by cultivating a Scout Mindset) while honing and trusting your intuitions and fueling your passions.

Inspired by my mentor, Paul Rohde, I bring you both the theory and practice of i) positive psychology (the science and practice of human flourishing), ii) behavioral science (data-driven psychology with a focus on creating concrete behavioral change), and iii) wisdom from Stoicism and, especially, secular Buddhism.

 I recognize that we humans are fascinatingly complex systems with different parts that all interact with each other. Maybe your perceived pain point is “I’m not productive enough” but the actual problem is that you’ve lost touch with your professional purpose, sleeping suboptimally, or your schedule is all over the place, and lack good habits.

You almost certainly have great ideas, insights, and theories about how you want yourself and the world to be. That’s great (high-five 🖐) and will provide some value! However, implementation and consistency will enable you to truly optimize for your long-term flourishing. We’ll take substantial care to translate the things we work on into high-quality yet pragmatic implementations and follow up on them. Moving you from theory to practice.

Hi, I'm Seb

Transition: I went from being an author and medical doctor to contributing to the effective altruism community via entrepreneurship and coaching.

Coaching: Coaching changed my expected lifetime impact and personal well-being in astonishing ways and I’m now trying to give the same to others in nuanced, truth-seeking, and cost-effective ways.

Three things I’m proud of:

  1. co-founding Effective Altruism Denmark
  2. using my MD to do research at Stanford that may prevent pandemics
  3. co-authoring a book and passionately yet effectively teaching large-scale courses.

Where I’m at: London because I expect that to be wise for my impact and I’m an explorer at heart.

Habits etc.: I meditate for 40 minutes every morning 🧘, journal every evening 📝, and occasionally bust a salsa move 💃.

Weekly coaching sessions with Sebastian during 2021 have leveled me up as a leader and increased my focus and capabilities toward building safe AGI. He’s helped me clarify my long-term and short-term priorities and create systems to build new skills. These systems range from installing new habits to tracking systems to measure progress and hold myself accountable. It’s usually the highlight of my week in terms of sheer utility, and he’s also just a delightful and caring person!

Michael Andregg (Co-founder of Fathom Radiant )

Michael is co-founder of Fathom Radiant – a company building a new type of computer to enable safe machine intelligence who has investors like Jaan Tallinn and Jeff Bezos and has been advised by FHI’s GovAI.

Everybody should have a Seb. He really helps you take something chaotic and confusing and turn it into a manageable system where the next steps are clear. He’s got a great balance of helping you on the emotional side as well as the productivity side, and seeing how they relate to each other.

Kat Woods (Founder of Nonlinear)

Kat is the founder of Nonlinear, an organization focused on reducing existential and suffering risks by incubating cost-effective interventions.

I now trust myself and my abilities to do what’s aligned with my priorities and saying no to things that are ultimately unimportant. I went from procrastinating while feeling guilty and stressed, doing unimportant things optimized for improving my CV to setting realistic and motivating goals that are aligned with my values while enjoying more time off and peace of mind. I now also have solid habits around sleep and exercise and trust that I can implement new habits when needed. I would highly recommend coaching with Sebastian!

Mathias Bonde (Chairperson of Effective Altruism Denmark)

Services

One-on-one Coaching

If my approach and character resonate with you, I’ll wholeheartedly do my best to provide you with a cost-effective six-week experiment. Learn more here.

Workshops and large-scale programs

Want a tailored, effective, and inspiring workshop or program for your group, organization, or community? Let’s work together!