EA is strategic charity. Strategic thought has a long, rich history, in politics, business, and the military. I just read Lawrence Freeman’s “Strategy,” an enormous history of strategic thought.
One thing I learned is that it’s normal for a pressing need, like strategic action, to have a history of prior theories that made sense in context, and that gave way, matured, or became richer with further strands of thought over time. I expect the same will happen with EA. That’s perfectly compatible with EA being a leading and important strand of philanthropic thought in the present, with further contributions to make in the coming decades.
There’s an essay on Philo’s substack pointing out that Netflix was just cable over the internet, but that the differences between Netflix and cable were still large enough to be a game-changer. Likewise, humans and chips are very different, yet share 99% of their DNA. EA can have similarities to earlier charity movements, yet be more different than similar in its effects. We should be careful about the tendency to stop at “scientific philanthopy. You invented scientific philanthropy.” The details and execution matter. If anything, the history of prior attempts shows a persistent need for the sort of thing EA is trying to accomplish.
I’d also point out that EA can benefit from contextualizing it in the present, not just the past. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation (is it still called that?) isn’t EA, but they approach philanthropy using many of the same lenses that EA does. There’s a general push to allocate resources to target the most important, tractable, and neglected levers for making a difference in well-run government agencies, even if they don’t explicitly use the ITN framework. EA can be seen as part of a larger push to rationalize public services and allocate resources efficiently. Again, the details that make EA different from these other efforts are key, but I think that a narrative of EA as the latest in a long line of failed and faded attempts to rationalize altruism gives a different feeling that seeing it as part of a vibrant and wide ranging push across many philanthropic and public services to serve the public good more strategically.
EA is strategic charity. Strategic thought has a long, rich history, in politics, business, and the military. I just read Lawrence Freeman’s “Strategy,” an enormous history of strategic thought.
One thing I learned is that it’s normal for a pressing need, like strategic action, to have a history of prior theories that made sense in context, and that gave way, matured, or became richer with further strands of thought over time. I expect the same will happen with EA. That’s perfectly compatible with EA being a leading and important strand of philanthropic thought in the present, with further contributions to make in the coming decades.
There’s an essay on Philo’s substack pointing out that Netflix was just cable over the internet, but that the differences between Netflix and cable were still large enough to be a game-changer. Likewise, humans and chips are very different, yet share 99% of their DNA. EA can have similarities to earlier charity movements, yet be more different than similar in its effects. We should be careful about the tendency to stop at “scientific philanthopy. You invented scientific philanthropy.” The details and execution matter. If anything, the history of prior attempts shows a persistent need for the sort of thing EA is trying to accomplish.
I’d also point out that EA can benefit from contextualizing it in the present, not just the past. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation (is it still called that?) isn’t EA, but they approach philanthropy using many of the same lenses that EA does. There’s a general push to allocate resources to target the most important, tractable, and neglected levers for making a difference in well-run government agencies, even if they don’t explicitly use the ITN framework. EA can be seen as part of a larger push to rationalize public services and allocate resources efficiently. Again, the details that make EA different from these other efforts are key, but I think that a narrative of EA as the latest in a long line of failed and faded attempts to rationalize altruism gives a different feeling that seeing it as part of a vibrant and wide ranging push across many philanthropic and public services to serve the public good more strategically.