Yes, there is an important difference between doing something yourself or recommending it to others (when you donât expect to persuade the whole world) vs. a prescription for the whole world to universally follow. So, maybe itâs good to stop donating to anything but GiveWell-recommended charities and suggest the same to others, but maybe it would end up being bad if literally the whole world suddenly did this.
Itâs also different to say that societyâs priorities or allocation of resources, as a whole, should be shifted somewhat in one direct or another than to say, I donât know, developed countries should abolish their welfare systems and give the money to GiveWell.
The real life example that sticks out in my mind is when someone who was involved in our university EA group talked about volunteering with seniors and someone else told her this was self-interested rather than altruistic. To me, that is just a deeply unwise and overzealous thing to say. (In that group, we also discussed the value of novels and funding for cancer research and we had people arguing both sides of each issue.)
My attitude on those things was that there is no cost to me at least taking a cautious approach and trying to practice humility with these topics. I wasnât trying to tell people to devote every ounce of their lives to effective altruism (not that I could convince people even if I wanted to) but actually proposing something much more modest â switching whatever they donated to a GiveWell charity, maybe pledging to give 10% of their income, things of that nature.
If we were pitching the Against Malaria Foundation to a student group planning a fundraiser, then I would see my goal as persuading them to donate to AMF and if they decided to donate to AMF, that would be success. If we did a presentation like a Giving Game, I didnât mind trying to give people a little razzle dazzle â that was the whole idea.
But if someone came to our EA group alone, though, my attitude was more like: âHereâs the idea. What do you think?â I never felt like it was for me to try to convert anybody. (Does that actually even work?) I always wanted to respect peopleâs autonomy and their humanity. That felt sacred to me. And, honestly, I just donât have the stomach to give someone a hard sell. I could never be a telemarketer.
Yes, there is an important difference between doing something yourself or recommending it to others (when you donât expect to persuade the whole world) vs. a prescription for the whole world to universally follow. So, maybe itâs good to stop donating to anything but GiveWell-recommended charities and suggest the same to others, but maybe it would end up being bad if literally the whole world suddenly did this.
Itâs also different to say that societyâs priorities or allocation of resources, as a whole, should be shifted somewhat in one direct or another than to say, I donât know, developed countries should abolish their welfare systems and give the money to GiveWell.
The real life example that sticks out in my mind is when someone who was involved in our university EA group talked about volunteering with seniors and someone else told her this was self-interested rather than altruistic. To me, that is just a deeply unwise and overzealous thing to say. (In that group, we also discussed the value of novels and funding for cancer research and we had people arguing both sides of each issue.)
My attitude on those things was that there is no cost to me at least taking a cautious approach and trying to practice humility with these topics. I wasnât trying to tell people to devote every ounce of their lives to effective altruism (not that I could convince people even if I wanted to) but actually proposing something much more modest â switching whatever they donated to a GiveWell charity, maybe pledging to give 10% of their income, things of that nature.
If we were pitching the Against Malaria Foundation to a student group planning a fundraiser, then I would see my goal as persuading them to donate to AMF and if they decided to donate to AMF, that would be success. If we did a presentation like a Giving Game, I didnât mind trying to give people a little razzle dazzle â that was the whole idea.
But if someone came to our EA group alone, though, my attitude was more like: âHereâs the idea. What do you think?â I never felt like it was for me to try to convert anybody. (Does that actually even work?) I always wanted to respect peopleâs autonomy and their humanity. That felt sacred to me. And, honestly, I just donât have the stomach to give someone a hard sell. I could never be a telemarketer.