I remember reading about a charity which is trying to change the way science is done. Something about science not being as focused on publication count, and scientists having more freedom to pursue what matters. I can’t for the life of me remember the name. Do you know any charity like this, that’s trying to change how science is conducted?
Are there enough EAs that we could form a voting block that has enough people to sway an election? Would you vote for a politician that we got together and decided is the best in order to advance the goals of human welfare, animal welfare, and longtermism?
We should be donating more frequently so we’re happier and feel more encouraged to donate
We know we get some happiness and fulfillment from donating money to a cause we care about (for instance see https://www.science.org/content/article/secret-happiness-giving). If we could get even more joy from donating the same amount of money, then it would make us more happy (benefitting ourselves) and encourage us to keep giving more (benefitting others).
To me, there’s a huge difference between donating $10,000 at once to a single charity and donating $100 one hundred times to different charities. Sort of like how our brains aren’t great at telling the difference between saving 1,000,000 lives and 10,000,000 lives, even though they are hugely different, is there research saying that the number of times we donate is more conducive to our brains remembering the feeling of happiness, than the amount we donate each time? I think if there is this kind of research then more people should be talking about it, because it could make a big difference for people who are earning to give.
I used to donate monthly instead of at the end of the year. I eventually decided there were advantages to donating at the end of the year* , though there may be ways to seek both benefits like donating a small portion monthly to get the good good feelings more often.
* orgs have a more complete picture of their funding need, donation matching opportunities, maybe you’d benefit from something like donating stock which may have some overhead you don’t want to repeat, you have the most information available, evaluators have put out their new recommendations, …
I remember reading about a charity which is trying to change the way science is done. Something about science not being as focused on publication count, and scientists having more freedom to pursue what matters. I can’t for the life of me remember the name. Do you know any charity like this, that’s trying to change how science is conducted?
https://newscience.org/ ?
Are there enough EAs that we could form a voting block that has enough people to sway an election? Would you vote for a politician that we got together and decided is the best in order to advance the goals of human welfare, animal welfare, and longtermism?
No
We should be donating more frequently so we’re happier and feel more encouraged to donate
We know we get some happiness and fulfillment from donating money to a cause we care about (for instance see https://www.science.org/content/article/secret-happiness-giving). If we could get even more joy from donating the same amount of money, then it would make us more happy (benefitting ourselves) and encourage us to keep giving more (benefitting others).
To me, there’s a huge difference between donating $10,000 at once to a single charity and donating $100 one hundred times to different charities. Sort of like how our brains aren’t great at telling the difference between saving 1,000,000 lives and 10,000,000 lives, even though they are hugely different, is there research saying that the number of times we donate is more conducive to our brains remembering the feeling of happiness, than the amount we donate each time? I think if there is this kind of research then more people should be talking about it, because it could make a big difference for people who are earning to give.
I used to donate monthly instead of at the end of the year. I eventually decided there were advantages to donating at the end of the year* , though there may be ways to seek both benefits like donating a small portion monthly to get the good good feelings more often.
* orgs have a more complete picture of their funding need, donation matching opportunities, maybe you’d benefit from something like donating stock which may have some overhead you don’t want to repeat, you have the most information available, evaluators have put out their new recommendations, …
Cool thanks for your thoughts KevinO. Those are good points.