I don’t buy this. Perhaps I don’t understand what you mean.
To press, imagine we’re at the fabled Shallow Pond. You see a child drowning. You can easily save them at minimal cost. However, you don’t. I point out you could easily have done so. You say “I know but I don’t want to do that”. I wouldn’t consider that a satisfactory response.
If you then said “I don’t need to justify my choices on effective altruist grounds” I might just look at your blankly for a moment and say “wait, what has ‘effective altruism’ got to do with it? What about, um, just basic ethics?” Our personal choices often do or could affect other people.
I don’t think that people should endlessly self-flaggelate about whether they are doing enough. You need to recognise it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and there are serious limits to what we can will ourselves to do, even if think it would be a good idea in principle. And it’s important to be as kind, forgiving, and accepting to ourselves as we think we should be to others we love. But what youve said, taken as face value, seems carte blanche for not trying.
I don’t buy this. Perhaps I don’t understand what you mean.
To press, imagine we’re at the fabled Shallow Pond. You see a child drowning. You can easily save them at minimal cost. However, you don’t. I point out you could easily have done so. You say “I know but I don’t want to do that”. I wouldn’t consider that a satisfactory response.
If you then said “I don’t need to justify my choices on effective altruist grounds” I might just look at your blankly for a moment and say “wait, what has ‘effective altruism’ got to do with it? What about, um, just basic ethics?” Our personal choices often do or could affect other people.
I don’t think that people should endlessly self-flaggelate about whether they are doing enough. You need to recognise it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and there are serious limits to what we can will ourselves to do, even if think it would be a good idea in principle. And it’s important to be as kind, forgiving, and accepting to ourselves as we think we should be to others we love. But what youve said, taken as face value, seems carte blanche for not trying.
I didn’t think Askell’s comment was advocating not trying. The examples given—giving 10% and going into AI safety- were pretty demanding.