A friend (edit: Ruairi Donnelly) raised the following point, which rings true to me:
If you mention EA in a conversation with people who don’t know about it yet, it often derails the conversation in unfruitful ways, such as discussing the person’s favorite pet theory/project for changing the world, or discussing whether it’s possible to be truly altruistic. It seems ‘effective altruism’ causes people to ask the wrong questions.
In contrast, concepts like ‘consequentialism’, ‘utilitarianism’, ‘global priorities’, or ‘longtermism’ seem to lead to more fruitful conversations, and the complexity feels more baked into the framing.
A friend (edit: Ruairi Donnelly) raised the following point, which rings true to me:
If you mention EA in a conversation with people who don’t know about it yet, it often derails the conversation in unfruitful ways, such as discussing the person’s favorite pet theory/project for changing the world, or discussing whether it’s possible to be truly altruistic. It seems ‘effective altruism’ causes people to ask the wrong questions.
In contrast, concepts like ‘consequentialism’, ‘utilitarianism’, ‘global priorities’, or ‘longtermism’ seem to lead to more fruitful conversations, and the complexity feels more baked into the framing.