Think about how precious the life is of a young child—concretely picture a small child coughing up blood and lying in bed with a fever of 105. We—the effective altruists—are the ones doing something about that.
The vast majority of people trying to keep kids from dying of malaria are not effective altruists.
I took this as being relative to those detracting, where this isn’t to be taken in a pretentious tone dismissing the work of others in the space helping others, but more “those who insult us aren’t often aren’t really trying to improve the world with us”.
“I’m passionate about alleviating global poverty, and have pledged to give away everything I earn over $40,000 a year. In December 2022, I started a fundraiser with Nathan Young, an Effective Altruist, that raised more than $321,000 for the charity Give Directly.”—https://www.xriskology.com/
I’m also quite critical of EA and have donated more than most EAs (both in absolute and percentage terms).
This is a solid data point so thanks for mentioning it. It is maybe worth mentioning that, as much as Emile and you may be “critical of EA”, Emile was formerly quite friendly and you and I are having this conversation on the forum.
I think you’re likely both “more EA” than the average person, and definitely more EA than the average detractor that I have in mind. What it means to “be EA” is amorphous and uncertain here, but many people who would consider themselves EAs are also critical of it sometimes.
I’d be interested to see how much Timnit donates, or any of those who wrote the typical SBF articles, but I highly doubt their numbers would look like those above.
The vast majority of people trying to keep kids from dying of malaria are not effective altruists.
I took this as being relative to those detracting, where this isn’t to be taken in a pretentious tone dismissing the work of others in the space helping others, but more “those who insult us aren’t often aren’t really trying to improve the world with us”.
Emile seems to donate quite a bit:
“I’m passionate about alleviating global poverty, and have pledged to give away everything I earn over $40,000 a year. In December 2022, I started a fundraiser with Nathan Young, an Effective Altruist, that raised more than $321,000 for the charity Give Directly.”—https://www.xriskology.com/
I’m also quite critical of EA and have donated more than most EAs (both in absolute and percentage terms).
Even annoying critics may be quite sincere.
This is a solid data point so thanks for mentioning it. It is maybe worth mentioning that, as much as Emile and you may be “critical of EA”, Emile was formerly quite friendly and you and I are having this conversation on the forum.
I think you’re likely both “more EA” than the average person, and definitely more EA than the average detractor that I have in mind. What it means to “be EA” is amorphous and uncertain here, but many people who would consider themselves EAs are also critical of it sometimes.
I’d be interested to see how much Timnit donates, or any of those who wrote the typical SBF articles, but I highly doubt their numbers would look like those above.