I really like this post, but I think the concept of buckets is a mistake. It implies that a cause has a discrete impact and “scores zero” on the other 2 dimensions, while in reality some causes might do well on 2 dimensions (or at least non-zero).
I also think over time, the community has moved more towards doing vs. donating, which has brought in a lot of practical constraints. For individuals this could be:
“what am I good at?”
“what motivates me?”
“what will my family think of me?”
And also for the community:
“which causes can we convince outsiders to go into?”
“which spread in causes do we need to not look too weird and demonstrate that our principles work?”
It can be difficult to separate these from the more universal moral and epistemic considerations, once someone is in a committed career path.
I really like this post, but I think the concept of buckets is a mistake. It implies that a cause has a discrete impact and “scores zero” on the other 2 dimensions, while in reality some causes might do well on 2 dimensions (or at least non-zero).
I also think over time, the community has moved more towards doing vs. donating, which has brought in a lot of practical constraints. For individuals this could be:
“what am I good at?”
“what motivates me?”
“what will my family think of me?”
And also for the community:
“which causes can we convince outsiders to go into?”
“which spread in causes do we need to not look too weird and demonstrate that our principles work?”
It can be difficult to separate these from the more universal moral and epistemic considerations, once someone is in a committed career path.