I will say I also never use the Drowning Child argument. For several reasons:
I generally don’t think negative emotions like shame and guilt are a good first impression/initial reason to join EA. People tend to distance themselves from sources of guilt. It’s fine to mention the drowning child argument maybe 10-20 minutes in, but I prefer to lead with positive associations.
I prefer to minimise use of thought experiments/hypotheticals in intros, and prefer to use examples relatable to the other person. IMO, thought experiments make the ethical stakes seem too trivial and distant.
What I often do is to figure out what cause areas the other person might relate to based on what they already care about, describe EA as fundamentally “doing good, better” in the sense of getting people to engage more thoughtfully with values they already hold.
I will say I also never use the Drowning Child argument. For several reasons:
I generally don’t think negative emotions like shame and guilt are a good first impression/initial reason to join EA. People tend to distance themselves from sources of guilt. It’s fine to mention the drowning child argument maybe 10-20 minutes in, but I prefer to lead with positive associations.
I prefer to minimise use of thought experiments/hypotheticals in intros, and prefer to use examples relatable to the other person. IMO, thought experiments make the ethical stakes seem too trivial and distant.
What I often do is to figure out what cause areas the other person might relate to based on what they already care about, describe EA as fundamentally “doing good, better” in the sense of getting people to engage more thoughtfully with values they already hold.
Thanks that’s helpful!