Improve the lot of humanity as much as we can given the resources we can gather and are willing to put in,
Gather and put in a lot of resources.
In particular, pretty much no-one puts in all their resources, or as much as they can possibly afford. Most EAs are not willing to entirely forego being really happy themselves in the pursuit of a better world.
(There are instrumental reasons why being infinitely self-sacrificing is a bad idea anyway, but even if there weren’t, most people just aren’t that hardcore about their utilitarianism.)
I would say the goal of EA is twofold:
Improve the lot of humanity as much as we can given the resources we can gather and are willing to put in,
Gather and put in a lot of resources.
In particular, pretty much no-one puts in all their resources, or as much as they can possibly afford. Most EAs are not willing to entirely forego being really happy themselves in the pursuit of a better world.
(There are instrumental reasons why being infinitely self-sacrificing is a bad idea anyway, but even if there weren’t, most people just aren’t that hardcore about their utilitarianism.)