Just flagging that I disagree with the language that EAs “should” donate 10% (in the sense that it’s morally obligatory). I think whether or not someone donates is a complicated choice, and a norm of donating 10% a) sets a higher bar of demandingness than I think makes sense for inclusion in EA, and b) isn’t even necessarily the good-maximizing action, depending on personal circumstances (e.g., some direct workers may be better off spending on themselves and exerting more effort on their work).
Sorry to be pedantic, but I think it’s really easy for these sorts of norms to accidentally emerge based on casual language and for people to start feeling unwelcome.
I think donating at least 10% of one’s income per year should be a norm for any person who identifies as part of the EA community, unless doing so would cause them significant financial hardship.
The whole point of EA is to actually do altruism. If someone’s not doing direct work, has been going to EA meetups for a year, identifies as an EA, and doesn’t at least have stated plans to donate, what makes them EA?
Even EAs who are doing direct work, I would argue, should still donate 10% unless that would cause them significant financial hardship.
What happened to the lesson of the drowning child?
My post is related to the Giving What We Can pledge and the broad idea of focusing on “utilons, not fuzzies.” From the wording of your comment I’m unclear on whether you’re unfamiliar with these ideas or whether you are just taking this as an opportunity to say that you disagree with them. If you don’t think that standards like the GWWC pledge are good for EA, then what do you think about the 2%/8% norm I propose here as a better alternative, even if far suboptimal to no pledge at all?
I don’t think taking the GWWC pledge should be a prerequisite to consider yourself an EA (which, it’s not a prerequisite now). If your post had said “GWWC members should...” or “EAs who donate 10% should...” instead of “EAs should...” then I wouldn’t have disagreed with the wording.
That makes sense. I don’t think there are any official prerequisites to being an EA, but there are community norms. I think the GWWC pledge (or a direct-work equivalent) is a common-enough practical or aspirational norm that I’m comfortable with eliding EA and GWWC-adjacent-EA for the purposes of this post, but I acknowledge you’d prefer to split these apart for a sensible reason.
Just flagging that I disagree with the language that EAs “should” donate 10% (in the sense that it’s morally obligatory). I think whether or not someone donates is a complicated choice, and a norm of donating 10% a) sets a higher bar of demandingness than I think makes sense for inclusion in EA, and b) isn’t even necessarily the good-maximizing action, depending on personal circumstances (e.g., some direct workers may be better off spending on themselves and exerting more effort on their work).
Sorry to be pedantic, but I think it’s really easy for these sorts of norms to accidentally emerge based on casual language and for people to start feeling unwelcome.
I think donating at least 10% of one’s income per year should be a norm for any person who identifies as part of the EA community, unless doing so would cause them significant financial hardship.
The whole point of EA is to actually do altruism. If someone’s not doing direct work, has been going to EA meetups for a year, identifies as an EA, and doesn’t at least have stated plans to donate, what makes them EA?
Even EAs who are doing direct work, I would argue, should still donate 10% unless that would cause them significant financial hardship.
What happened to the lesson of the drowning child?
My post is related to the Giving What We Can pledge and the broad idea of focusing on “utilons, not fuzzies.” From the wording of your comment I’m unclear on whether you’re unfamiliar with these ideas or whether you are just taking this as an opportunity to say that you disagree with them. If you don’t think that standards like the GWWC pledge are good for EA, then what do you think about the 2%/8% norm I propose here as a better alternative, even if far suboptimal to no pledge at all?
I don’t think taking the GWWC pledge should be a prerequisite to consider yourself an EA (which, it’s not a prerequisite now). If your post had said “GWWC members should...” or “EAs who donate 10% should...” instead of “EAs should...” then I wouldn’t have disagreed with the wording.
That makes sense. I don’t think there are any official prerequisites to being an EA, but there are community norms. I think the GWWC pledge (or a direct-work equivalent) is a common-enough practical or aspirational norm that I’m comfortable with eliding EA and GWWC-adjacent-EA for the purposes of this post, but I acknowledge you’d prefer to split these apart for a sensible reason.