Hi and welcome to the community! I have a few rambly thoughts :D
As far as I know, focusing on exposing potential high-achievers to EA has been both a consequence of EA history (EA comes from academia), and explicit strategy (high-potential people would probably have more impact, so it makes sense to focus on them). This means that the community inherits a lot of norms from academia.
But I feel like there’s a lot of room for the broader version of EA that’s palatable for broader society. Giving what we can is best positioned to do this, but I think the main points to spread outside the core community are roughly:
If you donate, be thoughtful about where you donate, some orgs have much more impact than others.
You should care a little bit about all of humanity.
I think Christian charities seem really trustworthy, since everyone knows Christianity is serious about compassion.
Thank you for the welcome, and your rambly thoughts. :-)
Yea, that makes sense. Rome wasn’t built in a day as the saying goes, and EA had to start somewhere, and it’s good that it did.
Sadly, some ancient institutions such as the Catholic Church seem to have become expert at demolishing their own moral authority, so it’s good that other means of reaching towards the same charitable goals are being established. I like it that EA appears to be ( a first impression) nether religious or secular, and instead just charitable.
All that said, it seems it would be wise for EA activists to keep in mind that the Catholic Church is, in spite of all it’s troubles, still truly massive, global, and very well established in the third world where so much of the need exists. If a partnership is not already being explored, there might be an opportunity there.
Hi and welcome to the community!
I have a few rambly thoughts :D
As far as I know, focusing on exposing potential high-achievers to EA has been both a consequence of EA history (EA comes from academia), and explicit strategy (high-potential people would probably have more impact, so it makes sense to focus on them). This means that the community inherits a lot of norms from academia.
But I feel like there’s a lot of room for the broader version of EA that’s palatable for broader society. Giving what we can is best positioned to do this, but I think the main points to spread outside the core community are roughly:
If you donate, be thoughtful about where you donate, some orgs have much more impact than others.
You should care a little bit about all of humanity.
I think Christian charities seem really trustworthy, since everyone knows Christianity is serious about compassion.
Thank you for the welcome, and your rambly thoughts. :-)
Yea, that makes sense. Rome wasn’t built in a day as the saying goes, and EA had to start somewhere, and it’s good that it did.
Sadly, some ancient institutions such as the Catholic Church seem to have become expert at demolishing their own moral authority, so it’s good that other means of reaching towards the same charitable goals are being established. I like it that EA appears to be ( a first impression) nether religious or secular, and instead just charitable.
All that said, it seems it would be wise for EA activists to keep in mind that the Catholic Church is, in spite of all it’s troubles, still truly massive, global, and very well established in the third world where so much of the need exists. If a partnership is not already being explored, there might be an opportunity there.