Executive summary: To maximize long-term impact, treat your future self as a different person whose motivation needs to be actively cultivated and protected through strategic activities and careful management of motivational costs.
Key points:
Build motivation through four key categories: strengthening moral conviction, increasing community engagement, creating habits/accountability, and fostering positive associations with EA principles.
Balance short-term impact against long-term motivation costs—avoid activities that are painfully demanding or suppress core preferences unless truly necessary.
Focus motivation on fundamental principles (like scope sensitivity and impartiality) rather than specific causes or communities to build resilience.
Value drift isn’t always bad—future self may have valid reasons to change priorities, but protect against unmotivated fizzling out.
Actively preempt disillusionment by engaging with criticism honestly rather than using self-deception or dogmatism to maintain motivation.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: To maximize long-term impact, treat your future self as a different person whose motivation needs to be actively cultivated and protected through strategic activities and careful management of motivational costs.
Key points:
Build motivation through four key categories: strengthening moral conviction, increasing community engagement, creating habits/accountability, and fostering positive associations with EA principles.
Balance short-term impact against long-term motivation costs—avoid activities that are painfully demanding or suppress core preferences unless truly necessary.
Focus motivation on fundamental principles (like scope sensitivity and impartiality) rather than specific causes or communities to build resilience.
Value drift isn’t always bad—future self may have valid reasons to change priorities, but protect against unmotivated fizzling out.
Actively preempt disillusionment by engaging with criticism honestly rather than using self-deception or dogmatism to maintain motivation.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.