I used to think one argument for donating and against donating later was the haste consideration.
However, I’ve just concluded this is fallacious. The haste consideration doesn’t necessarily implore to donate as soon as possible as much as it implodes us to figure out what to donate to, i.e., prioritize as best we can between interventions and/or causes as soon as possible. This goes the same for volunteering, advocacy, and research efforts. Has anyone else thought about this?
For me, this increases the chances I will defer my direct altruistic effort until later, or invest it in whatever course of action is the best currently available for prioritizing what my direct efforts should go towards. This is also because I’m quite uncertain between causes though.
I used to think one argument for donating and against donating later was the haste consideration. However, I’ve just concluded this is fallacious. The haste consideration doesn’t necessarily implore to donate as soon as possible as much as it implodes us to figure out what to donate to, i.e., prioritize as best we can between interventions and/or causes as soon as possible. This goes the same for volunteering, advocacy, and research efforts. Has anyone else thought about this?
For me, this increases the chances I will defer my direct altruistic effort until later, or invest it in whatever course of action is the best currently available for prioritizing what my direct efforts should go towards. This is also because I’m quite uncertain between causes though.
I think that as you imply this is sensitive to whether you expect you’ve worked out the best cause already.
Ben Todd and I wrote about how we think this and other considerations interact earlier this year.