What kind of community are we if people don’t feel comfortable talking about their private lives because they don’t optimise everything, don’t spend their free time researching or trying to make a difference? When people think that spending time volunteering for less effective non-profits might not be valued or even dismissed? What is the point of an ineffective soup kitchen, after all it is a waste of time in terms of improving QALYs?
I can’t tell if you’re saying “these should be universally treated as highly effective” or “people are entitled to do ineffective things”. I strongly agree with the latter, but disagree with the former even for core EA interventions so certainly don’t believe it applies to soup kitchen volunteers.
There’s also the question of if volunteering is harmful (my impression is Christmas-only soup kitchen volunteers are net costs, and soup kitchens tolerate food drives in the hopes it will lead to money later.), but that’s a separate issue.
The point I was trying to make is that it is important to value care and that we should be cautious not to judge or discredit or look down on things that may not appear to be maximally effective or optimised. I would not evaluate a soup kitchen intervention as highly effective but also think that doesn’t matter in this context. Not everything has to be optimized.
I can’t tell if you’re saying “these should be universally treated as highly effective” or “people are entitled to do ineffective things”. I strongly agree with the latter, but disagree with the former even for core EA interventions so certainly don’t believe it applies to soup kitchen volunteers.
There’s also the question of if volunteering is harmful (my impression is Christmas-only soup kitchen volunteers are net costs, and soup kitchens tolerate food drives in the hopes it will lead to money later.), but that’s a separate issue.
The point I was trying to make is that it is important to value care and that we should be cautious not to judge or discredit or look down on things that may not appear to be maximally effective or optimised. I would not evaluate a soup kitchen intervention as highly effective but also think that doesn’t matter in this context. Not everything has to be optimized.