While the point I was making was about authenticity rather than self-care, (âthe importance of human connectionâ being about 1:1â˛s with potential EAâs, rather than all human connection in oneâs life) I think your frame could apply to both.
Itâs definitely true that self-care is necessary for sustainable impact. However, given the question of âIn the least convenient possible world, if you actually could maximise your overall lifetime impact by throwing self-care under the bus, should you?â I notice that I am still reluctant to do this or recommend it to anyone else, and that applies to authenticity too. I donât think we should expect anyone to sacrifice their own happiness or their own morality, even if doing so actually would maximise impact.*
It would be wrong to say we should never sacrifice. Some of us sacrifice money, some of us sacrifice time, some of us sacrifice the causes that intuitively feel dear to us in favor of ones that are further away in space or time and donât feel as compelling. But there are definitely things I would never ask anyone to sacrifice, and happiness/âmorals are two of them.
Part of the reason is consequential. The more demanding EA as a group is, the less people we attract and the greater the risk of burnout we already have. But even in the least convenient possible world where this wasnât a problem, I think that if I had the ability to mandate what people in EA should sacrifice, I would still say âSacrifice what you can without meaningfully impacting your quality of lifeâ. If someone wants to sacrifice more I wouldnât stop them, but I wouldnât ask it of them.
And if the amount someone can sacrifice without meaningfully impacting their quality of life is next-to-nothing, I would tell them to focus on taking care of themselves and building themselves up. Not because it would lead to maximum impact later, even though it probably would. But because itâs the right thing to do.
*I could imagine ridiculous scenarios like âDo something you find morally wrong or the entire planet blows upâ where this no longer applies, but here Iâm referring mostly to the real tradeoffs we face every day.
While the point I was making was about authenticity rather than self-care, (âthe importance of human connectionâ being about 1:1â˛s with potential EAâs, rather than all human connection in oneâs life) I think your frame could apply to both.
Itâs definitely true that self-care is necessary for sustainable impact. However, given the question of âIn the least convenient possible world, if you actually could maximise your overall lifetime impact by throwing self-care under the bus, should you?â I notice that I am still reluctant to do this or recommend it to anyone else, and that applies to authenticity too. I donât think we should expect anyone to sacrifice their own happiness or their own morality, even if doing so actually would maximise impact.*
It would be wrong to say we should never sacrifice. Some of us sacrifice money, some of us sacrifice time, some of us sacrifice the causes that intuitively feel dear to us in favor of ones that are further away in space or time and donât feel as compelling. But there are definitely things I would never ask anyone to sacrifice, and happiness/âmorals are two of them.
Part of the reason is consequential. The more demanding EA as a group is, the less people we attract and the greater the risk of burnout we already have. But even in the least convenient possible world where this wasnât a problem, I think that if I had the ability to mandate what people in EA should sacrifice, I would still say âSacrifice what you can without meaningfully impacting your quality of lifeâ. If someone wants to sacrifice more I wouldnât stop them, but I wouldnât ask it of them.
And if the amount someone can sacrifice without meaningfully impacting their quality of life is next-to-nothing, I would tell them to focus on taking care of themselves and building themselves up. Not because it would lead to maximum impact later, even though it probably would. But because itâs the right thing to do.
*I could imagine ridiculous scenarios like âDo something you find morally wrong or the entire planet blows upâ where this no longer applies, but here Iâm referring mostly to the real tradeoffs we face every day.