Excited altruism has become a more predominant force in EA which implies a lower level of self-sacrifice.
Excited vs obligatory altruism strikes me as orthogonal to dedicated vs less dedicated. When an excited altruist is dedicated, that’s passion. When an obligatory altruist is dedicated, that’s self-discipline. Seems like two different ways to reach a similar point. Also, there is an empirical question here: It may be that telling people to be excited altruists creates passionate altruists at a higher rate than telling people to be obligatory altruists creates self-disciplined altruists, in the same way salespeople seem to have discovered that telling prospects they have an ‘opportunity’ to buy seems to work better than telling prospects they have an ‘obligation’ to buy.
I believe there is a threshold difference between passionate and self-disciplined EAs. As excited EAs become more dedicated, they tend to hit a wall where their frugality starts to affect them personally much more than it previously have. This wall takes effort to overcome, if it is overcome at all.
Meanwhile, when an obligatory EA becomes more dedicated, that wall doesn’t exist (or at least it has less force). So it’s easier for self-disciplined EAs to get to more extreme levels than for passionate EAs.
Well if we believe 80K that talent gaps matter more than funding gaps, maybe it’s good for excited EAs to worry less about donating and more about direct impact?
Good post.
Excited vs obligatory altruism strikes me as orthogonal to dedicated vs less dedicated. When an excited altruist is dedicated, that’s passion. When an obligatory altruist is dedicated, that’s self-discipline. Seems like two different ways to reach a similar point. Also, there is an empirical question here: It may be that telling people to be excited altruists creates passionate altruists at a higher rate than telling people to be obligatory altruists creates self-disciplined altruists, in the same way salespeople seem to have discovered that telling prospects they have an ‘opportunity’ to buy seems to work better than telling prospects they have an ‘obligation’ to buy.
I believe there is a threshold difference between passionate and self-disciplined EAs. As excited EAs become more dedicated, they tend to hit a wall where their frugality starts to affect them personally much more than it previously have. This wall takes effort to overcome, if it is overcome at all.
Meanwhile, when an obligatory EA becomes more dedicated, that wall doesn’t exist (or at least it has less force). So it’s easier for self-disciplined EAs to get to more extreme levels than for passionate EAs.
Well if we believe 80K that talent gaps matter more than funding gaps, maybe it’s good for excited EAs to worry less about donating and more about direct impact?