I think that “EA budget” is often interpreted too narrowly, in a few ways. So I strongly support the idea that we should be accepting and supportive of people doing more good, even if it’s not the most good they can do, in a few ways.
For example, you mention “money spent more effectively on causes that aren’t popular in the EA community [which can] result in more money being available to spend on EA causes.” That’s definitely a great investment—if supporting High Impact Athletes to get them to donate effectively is good, supporting effectiveness in music education to encourage others to think about effectiveness can also be effective. If talking to people about effectiveness in other areas gets a couple people to look into EA, it will be very useful!
And even without moving money to EA areas, this can be effective. For example, if I can spend time talking to people about effect interventions in domestic education in ways that convince 100 people to donate $1,000 a month to a charity that improves lives by 1 QALY for $1,000, which is well below the bar for effective charities, instead of one which improves lives by 1 QALY per $10,000, I’ve effectively improved their collective charity by over 1,000 QALY per year—which is very plausibly more good than I would do spending that time working directly to create QALYs directly.
And from a decision-theory perspective, within our “EA Budget,” I also think there is room for what you’re discussing when you mention that we can “create new projects with the potential to be even more effective, perhaps even addressing some of the root causes of global inequities.” This is due to Value of Information. If we have a half dozen charities that save lives for under $10,000, and another hundred which seem promising as new projects, where we don’t know about the cost-per -life-saved, or whichever metric we are using, it makes sense to do some level of exploration into those hundred charities.
I also think that for people with sufficient income, there are non-EA things which should also be done wth money. For example, it’s really good to support organizations you benefit from, such as donating to the local library and paying dues to NPR—not as altruistic expenses, but as part of a budget where you’re not freeloading. (I’ve said the same about spending on offsetting my CO2 emissions.) And I also agree with Julia that it’s also good to give money to things you care about, even apart from EA money and personal spending—so I will donate to a friend’s campaigns to raise money for ineffective charities, because I want to support my friend. And to be clear, none of this last set of things is my EA budget, so I don’t count it towards that total—and still think it’s important to do.
I think that “EA budget” is often interpreted too narrowly, in a few ways. So I strongly support the idea that we should be accepting and supportive of people doing more good, even if it’s not the most good they can do, in a few ways.
For example, you mention “money spent more effectively on causes that aren’t popular in the EA community [which can] result in more money being available to spend on EA causes.” That’s definitely a great investment—if supporting High Impact Athletes to get them to donate effectively is good, supporting effectiveness in music education to encourage others to think about effectiveness can also be effective. If talking to people about effectiveness in other areas gets a couple people to look into EA, it will be very useful!
And even without moving money to EA areas, this can be effective. For example, if I can spend time talking to people about effect interventions in domestic education in ways that convince 100 people to donate $1,000 a month to a charity that improves lives by 1 QALY for $1,000, which is well below the bar for effective charities, instead of one which improves lives by 1 QALY per $10,000, I’ve effectively improved their collective charity by over 1,000 QALY per year—which is very plausibly more good than I would do spending that time working directly to create QALYs directly.
And from a decision-theory perspective, within our “EA Budget,” I also think there is room for what you’re discussing when you mention that we can “create new projects with the potential to be even more effective, perhaps even addressing some of the root causes of global inequities.” This is due to Value of Information. If we have a half dozen charities that save lives for under $10,000, and another hundred which seem promising as new projects, where we don’t know about the cost-per -life-saved, or whichever metric we are using, it makes sense to do some level of exploration into those hundred charities.
I also think that for people with sufficient income, there are non-EA things which should also be done wth money. For example, it’s really good to support organizations you benefit from, such as donating to the local library and paying dues to NPR—not as altruistic expenses, but as part of a budget where you’re not freeloading. (I’ve said the same about spending on offsetting my CO2 emissions.) And I also agree with Julia that it’s also good to give money to things you care about, even apart from EA money and personal spending—so I will donate to a friend’s campaigns to raise money for ineffective charities, because I want to support my friend. And to be clear, none of this last set of things is my EA budget, so I don’t count it towards that total—and still think it’s important to do.