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0 pointsprionassembly5y ago0 comments

Donating money is an act of self-expression. Do learn about effective altruism, cost-effectiveness, impact, etc. but know that it will ultimately reflect your values. Donate to African wildlife if you're fascinated by lions and zebras.

I donate to Wikipedia and the archive.org. I practice rational ignorance: I estimate that the costs of learning more about effective charity are far above the costs of doing it wrong. Maybe Wikipedia uses the money to create more and more small-fry side-projects (Wiki-maps, wiki-this, wiki-that). Maybe it funds Wikifeet, which is thoroughly weird. I don't care -- Wikipedia is one of the greatest accomplishments of H. sapiens sapiens.

(Malaria is still a big problem, and it's so cheaply improved upon -- if that touches your heart, go for it!)

0 pointsprionassembly5y ago0 comments

(Malaria is still a big problem, and it's so cheaply improved upon -- if that touches your heart, go for it!)

0 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

thewakalix5y ago· 2 in thread

Effective altruism isn't opposed to your values. It's about achieving your values as much as possible, given resource constraints. If your values are different from most EAs, then you'll have a different criterion for "effectiveness".

prionassemblyOP5y ago

Effective altruism is a value. A practicing Catholic may find the most effective interventions to be against their religion. A less strict Christian may feel that effectiveness overrules religious directives. In any case, you're operating under your values.

kubanczyk5y ago

Altruism is simply a concern for others. In broad sense it can mean that you care whether others get more value (according to either receivers' opinion or your opinion about values).

"Effective" just means you don't want to waste money or time on values not important (according to either receivers' opinion or your opinion).

The fact that Givewell chooses certain values (the rational ones) and Christianity slightly different values is orthogonal to the concept of altruism.

Even if I believed in Flying Spaghetti Monster I could care whether others have a steady supply of macaroni. This makes me an altruist in my book. And I could act effectively about it. But I wouldn't complain about Givewell in that case.

And that's why I don't like conflating rationalism with effective altruism. It's just another case of emotional loading of a phrase.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

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