Hello there. Let me write a little introduction of myself to this community:
I am a 16-year old girl, living in Greece, and I discovered effective altruism around a month ago, from Peter Singer and from my involvement in the vegan/sustainable fashion/minimalism community. Due to my sudden conversion to buddhism and my realization of the immense, profound suffering in the world, that of human and non-human sentient beings, everything he said in his book ″the Life You can Save″ resonated with me deeply and I’ve decided I want to dedicate my career(s), and other endeavors to earning more to give more, so that I can alleviate some of the enormous agony that exists in this realm.
I live in an extremely controlling household and wasn’t allowed to leave the house or take care of basic hygiene until recently, and although things are improving, I am still not allowed to have part time work, and my only income is the 2$ of lunch money I get for school, and the occasional 10 to 20 euros for me to buy food at a field trip. My caregiver really wants to convince me to be dependent on her until I am married but I won’t allow that.
My main interests are writing and music but when it comes to career, I am willing to do them semi-professionally and I’m open to doing pretty much anything else that’s challenging and high-impact to benefit other beings.
My ethically stances are negative leaning utilitarianism, and sentiocentrism, but I am also somewhat of a virtue ethicist. I am a negative utilitarian because I believe pain is more intense than pleasure, by default, and because the act of torturing someone wouldn’t be justified if the pleasure of the torturer was as intense as the pain of the victim. My values are focused primarily on reducing the suffering of other moral agents. I define a moral agent as any living being that is capable of experiencing consciousness and therefore sentience, any being that has the capacity for pleasure and pain, to me, is a moral agent. Treating one spiecies better than another, because of it’s ability to reason, or because of it’s close realtionship with humans (eg, pet animals), to me is speciesism. I think sentience is what classifies a moral agent, and I measure the ″badness″ of hurting a sentient being based on how complex it’s nervous system is, and therefore, how large it’s capacity for feeling pain is. I also measure it based on how much pleasure one of it’s lifetimes contains.
I consider climate change an X or an S Risk. I don’t think I need to explain this.
In terms of belief in an Omni-God, I have become a de-facto atheist, lost my faith recently, but since I think claiming I am 100% sure ″ethical monotheism″ and classical theism goes against the Middle Way, I will call myself a Teapot Agnostic, in the sense that while I think the existence of the abrahamic god is as unlikely as an invisible tiny teapot floating through space, I am still open to the existence of an Omni-God, if someone gives me a convicing reason to believe in one and answers my many questions.
I think insects and other minute life forms are moral agents, that consider moral consideration on my daily life, much like cats, dogs, cows and chickens are.
I came here to ask a few questions from the older, more experienced members about what my next steps are in EA, as someone who is at the beggining of their life, and haven’t chosen a direction. I also want to know which methods of earning to give are the most effective and therefore, high impact.
I know the 80,000 hours website advices people aged 15 to 25 to donate 1% of their income, and save the rest so that they can make bigger donations later, but is there anything else I can do at that age range to maximize my giving, other than saving some of my lunch money?
Is the stock market a good place for someone who wants to earn to give? How about trading? How about cryptocurrency? Is crypto far too risky for an Effective Altruist to use as a means for impact?
Is there a way I can create my own cryptocurrency for people to invest in, so that I can earn passive income to donate it? Is there a similar project I can invest in? I think I heard something about a charity income.
Is a depop shop with all the junk I want to give away to declutter my space more cost effective than say, recycling them or giving them to a charity organization directly? Should I do the same with some old books I have which I no longer read/won’t read?
Would it be ethical for me to become a buddhist monastic after retiring? I know it won’t be a great idea for me to do it now, since monks and nuns don’t have conventional jobs and live off people’s donation, so locking myself up in a monastery to forget about all the agony in this world, would diminish the impact I could have had on the world, and would also be extremely selfish of me, but if I do it when I am much older, after I have retired and outlived most of my family, after my 80,000 hours are over, would it still have any moral implications?
Lastly, what advice would you give to me, that you wish you had known when you were my age?
I want to give a special thanks to anyone who has read this far or anyone commenting on this post. I am grateful to have discovered this movement and community. Peace out to all of you.
[Question] Advice for a 16-year-old girl
Hello there. Let me write a little introduction of myself to this community:
I am a 16-year old girl, living in Greece, and I discovered effective altruism around a month ago, from Peter Singer and from my involvement in the vegan/sustainable fashion/minimalism community. Due to my sudden conversion to buddhism and my realization of the immense, profound suffering in the world, that of human and non-human sentient beings, everything he said in his book ″the Life You can Save″ resonated with me deeply and I’ve decided I want to dedicate my career(s), and other endeavors to earning more to give more, so that I can alleviate some of the enormous agony that exists in this realm.
I live in an extremely controlling household and wasn’t allowed to leave the house or take care of basic hygiene until recently, and although things are improving, I am still not allowed to have part time work, and my only income is the 2$ of lunch money I get for school, and the occasional 10 to 20 euros for me to buy food at a field trip. My caregiver really wants to convince me to be dependent on her until I am married but I won’t allow that.
My main interests are writing and music but when it comes to career, I am willing to do them semi-professionally and I’m open to doing pretty much anything else that’s challenging and high-impact to benefit other beings.
My ethically stances are negative leaning utilitarianism, and sentiocentrism, but I am also somewhat of a virtue ethicist. I am a negative utilitarian because I believe pain is more intense than pleasure, by default, and because the act of torturing someone wouldn’t be justified if the pleasure of the torturer was as intense as the pain of the victim. My values are focused primarily on reducing the suffering of other moral agents. I define a moral agent as any living being that is capable of experiencing consciousness and therefore sentience, any being that has the capacity for pleasure and pain, to me, is a moral agent. Treating one spiecies better than another, because of it’s ability to reason, or because of it’s close realtionship with humans (eg, pet animals), to me is speciesism. I think sentience is what classifies a moral agent, and I measure the ″badness″ of hurting a sentient being based on how complex it’s nervous system is, and therefore, how large it’s capacity for feeling pain is. I also measure it based on how much pleasure one of it’s lifetimes contains.
I consider climate change an X or an S Risk. I don’t think I need to explain this.
In terms of belief in an Omni-God, I have become a de-facto atheist, lost my faith recently, but since I think claiming I am 100% sure ″ethical monotheism″ and classical theism goes against the Middle Way, I will call myself a Teapot Agnostic, in the sense that while I think the existence of the abrahamic god is as unlikely as an invisible tiny teapot floating through space, I am still open to the existence of an Omni-God, if someone gives me a convicing reason to believe in one and answers my many questions.
I think insects and other minute life forms are moral agents, that consider moral consideration on my daily life, much like cats, dogs, cows and chickens are.
I came here to ask a few questions from the older, more experienced members about what my next steps are in EA, as someone who is at the beggining of their life, and haven’t chosen a direction. I also want to know which methods of earning to give are the most effective and therefore, high impact.
I know the 80,000 hours website advices people aged 15 to 25 to donate 1% of their income, and save the rest so that they can make bigger donations later, but is there anything else I can do at that age range to maximize my giving, other than saving some of my lunch money?
Is the stock market a good place for someone who wants to earn to give? How about trading? How about cryptocurrency? Is crypto far too risky for an Effective Altruist to use as a means for impact?
Is there a way I can create my own cryptocurrency for people to invest in, so that I can earn passive income to donate it? Is there a similar project I can invest in? I think I heard something about a charity income.
Is a depop shop with all the junk I want to give away to declutter my space more cost effective than say, recycling them or giving them to a charity organization directly? Should I do the same with some old books I have which I no longer read/won’t read?
Would it be ethical for me to become a buddhist monastic after retiring? I know it won’t be a great idea for me to do it now, since monks and nuns don’t have conventional jobs and live off people’s donation, so locking myself up in a monastery to forget about all the agony in this world, would diminish the impact I could have had on the world, and would also be extremely selfish of me, but if I do it when I am much older, after I have retired and outlived most of my family, after my 80,000 hours are over, would it still have any moral implications?
Lastly, what advice would you give to me, that you wish you had known when you were my age?
I want to give a special thanks to anyone who has read this far or anyone commenting on this post. I am grateful to have discovered this movement and community. Peace out to all of you.