But if, as this talk suggests, it’s not obvious whether donating to near term interventions is good or bad for the world, why are you interested in whether you can pitch friends and family to donate to them?
My rough framing of “why pitch friends and family on donating” is that donating is a credible commitment towards altruism. It’s really easy to get people to say “yeah, helping people is a good idea” but really hard to turn that into something actionable.
Even granting that the long term and thus actual impact of AMF is uncertain, I feel like the transition from “typical altruistic leaning person” to “EA giver” is much more feasible, and sets up “EA giver” to “Longtermist”. Once someone is already donating 10% of their income to one effective charity, it seems easier to make a case like the one OP outlined here.
I guess one thing that would change my mind: do you know people who did jump straight into longtermism?
I totally understand this motivation and I’m currently doing the same.
I’m a little worried that it’s hard to do this with integrity though. Maybe if you are careful with what you say (e.g. “Cheapest way to save a life” rather than “Most effective way to do good”) you can get away without lying, but if you really believe the arguments in the talk it still starts to feel like dangerous territory to me.
But if, as this talk suggests, it’s not obvious whether donating to near term interventions is good or bad for the world, why are you interested in whether you can pitch friends and family to donate to them?
My rough framing of “why pitch friends and family on donating” is that donating is a credible commitment towards altruism. It’s really easy to get people to say “yeah, helping people is a good idea” but really hard to turn that into something actionable.
Even granting that the long term and thus actual impact of AMF is uncertain, I feel like the transition from “typical altruistic leaning person” to “EA giver” is much more feasible, and sets up “EA giver” to “Longtermist”. Once someone is already donating 10% of their income to one effective charity, it seems easier to make a case like the one OP outlined here.
I guess one thing that would change my mind: do you know people who did jump straight into longtermism?
I totally understand this motivation and I’m currently doing the same.
I’m a little worried that it’s hard to do this with integrity though. Maybe if you are careful with what you say (e.g. “Cheapest way to save a life” rather than “Most effective way to do good”) you can get away without lying, but if you really believe the arguments in the talk it still starts to feel like dangerous territory to me.