I’m interested in building a career around technological risks. Sometimes, I think about all the problems we’re facing. From biosecurity risks to AI safety risks to cybersecurity risks to … And it all feels so big and pressing and hopeless and whatnot.
Clearly, me being existential about these issues wasn’t helping anyone. So I’ve had to accept that I have to pick a smaller, very specific problem that my skillset could be useful in. Even if it’s not solving everything, I won’t solve anything if I don’t specialise in that way.
Maybe some spirit of that could also apply to the altruistic actions I take in general? Ie. I have to start by going vegan OR setting up regular donations OR working towards a more flexible career OR thinking about whether I want kids OR … I can’t take on all those things at once.
I suppose the simple way I might remind myself of that is “Altruism requires one step at a time and not every altruistic person needs to generalise in all methods of being altruistic.”
I’m interested in building a career around technological risks. Sometimes, I think about all the problems we’re facing. From biosecurity risks to AI safety risks to cybersecurity risks to … And it all feels so big and pressing and hopeless and whatnot.
Clearly, me being existential about these issues wasn’t helping anyone. So I’ve had to accept that I have to pick a smaller, very specific problem that my skillset could be useful in. Even if it’s not solving everything, I won’t solve anything if I don’t specialise in that way.
Maybe some spirit of that could also apply to the altruistic actions I take in general? Ie. I have to start by going vegan OR setting up regular donations OR working towards a more flexible career OR thinking about whether I want kids OR … I can’t take on all those things at once.
I suppose the simple way I might remind myself of that is “Altruism requires one step at a time and not every altruistic person needs to generalise in all methods of being altruistic.”