I think for me, it might be best to use a straightforward “join us!” pitch.
Most people I know have considered the idea that there are better and worse ways to help the world. But they don’t extend that thinking to realize the implication that there might be a set of best ways. Nor do they have the long-tail of value concept. They also don’t have any emotional impulse pushing them to explore “what’s the best wat to help the world?” Nor do they have any links to the community besides me.
My experience is that most of my friends and family have very limited bandwidth for considering or acting on altruistic ideas. If they do, they have even less bandwidth for thinking critically about effectiveness with an open mind.
So I’m thinking it might be good to try a conversation that goes something like this:
“I’m in the effective altruism movement!”
“What’s that?”
“We research to figure out the most effective ways to make the world a better place. You should join, it would be awesome to have you!”
“Hm, that sounds cool. But how do you figure something like that out?”
“Oh it’s super interesting. Takes quite a bit of thought of course, but it’s also fun. I can show you if you want?”
“Sure....”
“Ok, so what’s a way you want to help the world, maybe by volunteering or donating or something?”
“Um, I donated to a food bank for Chanukah.”
“Great! So here’s how we’d think about that at EA. Basically we want to start by figuring out the principle behind why you picked a food bank. Why’d you donate there?”
“I heard the food banks were running low because of COVID, plus I like to cook.”
“Cool, that makes sense. So partly it fits with your interests, and partly it’s about making sure people have enough to eat?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Gotcha. Ok. So in EA, we focus on the ‘help other people’ part especially, so let’s set aside the fact that you like to cook and focus on the getting food to people part, is that ok?”
“Yeah.”
“So this might seem like kind of a silly question, but why is it important for people to get enough to eat?”
“So they don’t starve, or go hungry.”
“Right. I mean those things are obviously bad, and we want to think about what exactly is bad about starving, or going hungry?”
“Well, you could die. Or just be really miserable. It makes kids not be able to think straight in school. Plus you might not be able to work and you could end up homeless.”
“Right. So misery, death, and just struggling to be able to keep your life together?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok. So this is where EA gets into the picture. So first off, EAs think that everybody’s lives matter equally, like a kid in Africa’s life matters just as much as a kid in America. Do you agree with that?”
“Definitely!”
“Right, I figured! And where do you think people are struggling more with food insecurity, here in our city or in a place like, say, Yemen?”
“Uh, definitely Yemen.”
“And where do you think the money you donated would go further toward buying food, here or in a place like Yemen?”
“Probably also Yemen? Except they have a war going on I think, so maybe it’s hard to get food there?”
“You’re already thinking like an EA! You can already kind of see where this leads, right? We’re trying to think of where to make your donation go farthest, plus make sure it actually accomplishes something. Like, maybe the food pantry in our city is low on food, but maybe there are places where people have nothing to eat at all.”
“Right, right… but the thing is, don’t we have a responsibility to help people here? And plus, how would you, like, figure out where to donate to to help people in Yemen? How do you know the charity actually works?”
“Well basically, I’d start by saying this is a really complicated subject, and I’d be happy to talk it out for as long as you’re interested. It’s one of my favorite topics. But this is why I think it’s really important to join EA. We basically have a whole community of people and nonprofits who are super focused on all this stuff. We think through those thorny questions like whether it’s best to focus on helping people in your own community. Also doing, like, tens of thousands of hours on charities to see which ones really work, which basically nobody was doing before we started the movement. So the point is, if you’re in EA, you don’t have to figure it all out for yourself. Want to join?”
I know it seems silly to frame it as a club that you join, but also… why not?
I think for me a real barrier is the fact that I barrel ahead with the ideas too quickly… like I want to jump straight in at the deep-end with “we should think of all lives as equally important and we should be trying to consider the ways our donation can go farthest”—that idea on its own maybe isn’t controversial, but probably hasn’t engaged my conversational partner in the same way as in your example.
One of the main motivations for me writing this post was to have a mental checklist when discussing EA so that I don’t barrel ahead without bringing the other person along for the ride :)
So for me, I think it’s useful to have a framework in my head so I can ensure that these ideas build upon each other:
1. do they want to do some good in the world
2. do they agree that all lives are equally important
3. do they agree that there are some situations where your donation/time will make far more of a difference than others
4. do they agree that it is possible/worthwhile to figure out which interventions are the most effective
5. this stuff is really engaging and there is already a whole movement that you can join so you don’t have to do all this on your own!
That’s a simplified framework (I just tried to pick out the key beats in your conversation example) but it definitely helps for me to have a framework :)
I think for me, it might be best to use a straightforward “join us!” pitch.
Most people I know have considered the idea that there are better and worse ways to help the world. But they don’t extend that thinking to realize the implication that there might be a set of best ways. Nor do they have the long-tail of value concept. They also don’t have any emotional impulse pushing them to explore “what’s the best wat to help the world?” Nor do they have any links to the community besides me.
My experience is that most of my friends and family have very limited bandwidth for considering or acting on altruistic ideas. If they do, they have even less bandwidth for thinking critically about effectiveness with an open mind.
So I’m thinking it might be good to try a conversation that goes something like this:
“I’m in the effective altruism movement!”
“What’s that?”
“We research to figure out the most effective ways to make the world a better place. You should join, it would be awesome to have you!”
“Hm, that sounds cool. But how do you figure something like that out?”
“Oh it’s super interesting. Takes quite a bit of thought of course, but it’s also fun. I can show you if you want?”
“Sure....”
“Ok, so what’s a way you want to help the world, maybe by volunteering or donating or something?”
“Um, I donated to a food bank for Chanukah.”
“Great! So here’s how we’d think about that at EA. Basically we want to start by figuring out the principle behind why you picked a food bank. Why’d you donate there?”
“I heard the food banks were running low because of COVID, plus I like to cook.”
“Cool, that makes sense. So partly it fits with your interests, and partly it’s about making sure people have enough to eat?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Gotcha. Ok. So in EA, we focus on the ‘help other people’ part especially, so let’s set aside the fact that you like to cook and focus on the getting food to people part, is that ok?”
“Yeah.”
“So this might seem like kind of a silly question, but why is it important for people to get enough to eat?”
“So they don’t starve, or go hungry.”
“Right. I mean those things are obviously bad, and we want to think about what exactly is bad about starving, or going hungry?”
“Well, you could die. Or just be really miserable. It makes kids not be able to think straight in school. Plus you might not be able to work and you could end up homeless.”
“Right. So misery, death, and just struggling to be able to keep your life together?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok. So this is where EA gets into the picture. So first off, EAs think that everybody’s lives matter equally, like a kid in Africa’s life matters just as much as a kid in America. Do you agree with that?”
“Definitely!”
“Right, I figured! And where do you think people are struggling more with food insecurity, here in our city or in a place like, say, Yemen?”
“Uh, definitely Yemen.”
“And where do you think the money you donated would go further toward buying food, here or in a place like Yemen?”
“Probably also Yemen? Except they have a war going on I think, so maybe it’s hard to get food there?”
“You’re already thinking like an EA! You can already kind of see where this leads, right? We’re trying to think of where to make your donation go farthest, plus make sure it actually accomplishes something. Like, maybe the food pantry in our city is low on food, but maybe there are places where people have nothing to eat at all.”
“Right, right… but the thing is, don’t we have a responsibility to help people here? And plus, how would you, like, figure out where to donate to to help people in Yemen? How do you know the charity actually works?”
“Well basically, I’d start by saying this is a really complicated subject, and I’d be happy to talk it out for as long as you’re interested. It’s one of my favorite topics. But this is why I think it’s really important to join EA. We basically have a whole community of people and nonprofits who are super focused on all this stuff. We think through those thorny questions like whether it’s best to focus on helping people in your own community. Also doing, like, tens of thousands of hours on charities to see which ones really work, which basically nobody was doing before we started the movement. So the point is, if you’re in EA, you don’t have to figure it all out for yourself. Want to join?”
I know it seems silly to frame it as a club that you join, but also… why not?
I love this!
I think for me a real barrier is the fact that I barrel ahead with the ideas too quickly… like I want to jump straight in at the deep-end with “we should think of all lives as equally important and we should be trying to consider the ways our donation can go farthest”—that idea on its own maybe isn’t controversial, but probably hasn’t engaged my conversational partner in the same way as in your example.
One of the main motivations for me writing this post was to have a mental checklist when discussing EA so that I don’t barrel ahead without bringing the other person along for the ride :)
So for me, I think it’s useful to have a framework in my head so I can ensure that these ideas build upon each other:
1. do they want to do some good in the world
2. do they agree that all lives are equally important
3. do they agree that there are some situations where your donation/time will make far more of a difference than others
4. do they agree that it is possible/worthwhile to figure out which interventions are the most effective
5. this stuff is really engaging and there is already a whole movement that you can join so you don’t have to do all this on your own!
That’s a simplified framework (I just tried to pick out the key beats in your conversation example) but it definitely helps for me to have a framework :)