I agree. I’ve also found it a bit paralyzing to browse these boards. I find an organization I think is doing great work then find a post laying out how the organization is not as good as it seems and I don’t want to ‘waste’ my money on a sub-optimal charitable donation.
Agreed, it’s not helpful to discourage people who are doing good by only criticizing where they might fall short. It’s one of the challenges of the EA mindset, but in my experience it’s a challenge that most EAs have struggled with and tried to find solutions for. Generally, the solutions recognize that beating yourself up about this stuff isn’t really effective or altruistic at all.
My favorite writing on this topic comes from Julia Wise, a community liaison at CEA and author of the Giving Gladly blog. Here’s a few posts I found helpful:
Yes, it’s very common to fall into this pit of EA burnout and have to dig yourself out! I wish it was less common because it can a really draining experience. And I wonder if it’s possible to do things a little differently so that it becomes less common. Sasha Chapin describes this as a “toxic social norm”: https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/your-intelligent-conscientious-in
It’s true, people in EA talk about how you shouldn’t feel guilty and burn out, but burn out still happens because the “toxic social norm” is that in EA we keep thinking about maximizing impact, and that’s just difficult to keep optimizing on without burning out.
I agree. I’ve also found it a bit paralyzing to browse these boards. I find an organization I think is doing great work then find a post laying out how the organization is not as good as it seems and I don’t want to ‘waste’ my money on a sub-optimal charitable donation.
Agreed, it’s not helpful to discourage people who are doing good by only criticizing where they might fall short. It’s one of the challenges of the EA mindset, but in my experience it’s a challenge that most EAs have struggled with and tried to find solutions for. Generally, the solutions recognize that beating yourself up about this stuff isn’t really effective or altruistic at all.
My favorite writing on this topic comes from Julia Wise, a community liaison at CEA and author of the Giving Gladly blog. Here’s a few posts I found helpful:
http://www.givinggladly.com/2013/06/cheerfully.html?m=1
http://www.givinggladly.com/2020/01/its-ok-to-feed-stray-cats.html?m=1
http://www.givinggladly.com/2019/02/you-have-more-than-one-goal-and-thats.html?m=1
Yes, it’s very common to fall into this pit of EA burnout and have to dig yourself out! I wish it was less common because it can a really draining experience. And I wonder if it’s possible to do things a little differently so that it becomes less common. Sasha Chapin describes this as a “toxic social norm”: https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/your-intelligent-conscientious-in
It’s true, people in EA talk about how you shouldn’t feel guilty and burn out, but burn out still happens because the “toxic social norm” is that in EA we keep thinking about maximizing impact, and that’s just difficult to keep optimizing on without burning out.