I really like this mindset as a way to avoid the âelitismâ that a lot of people (rightly or wrongly) perceive in EA thinking.
When I encounter someone whoâs working on a project, my first thought isnât âwhatâs the impact of this project?â. Instead, I ask:
âIs this person doing something with a reasonably positive impact on the world, and doing it for good reasons?â
âAre they open to doing something else, if they come to believe that doing so will get them even more of what they value?â
For almost everyone Iâve met within EA, both of those answers are âyesâ, and that seems to me like one of the most important facts about our community, however different our ârelative impactsâ might be.
Even outside of EA, I think that a lot of people still share our core goal of helping others as much as possible, and that this goal manifests in the way they think about their work. In my view, this makes them âalliesâ in a certain fundamental sense. As long as we share that goal, we can find ways to work together, in an alliance against the worldâs more⌠unhelpful forces.
Example: I have a friend whoâs curious about EA, but whose first love is ecology, and who works in a science education nonprofit (but wants to keep looking for better opportunities). I donât know what her actual impact is, but I do know that she really cares about helping people, and I ask her about her work with genuine interest when I see her.
I wouldnât recommend this friend for 80,000 Hours consulting, but I think that as EA grows to incorporate more causes and more people, sheâll eventually find a place in the community. And even if she never takes a new job, itâs good to just have a lot of people in the world who hear the phrase âeffective altruismâ and think âyes, those people are on my side, theyâre trying to help just like I am, I want them to succeedâ. If we want to make that happen, we should be careful to notice when someone is doing something good, even if isnât âoptimizedâ.
I really like this mindset as a way to avoid the âelitismâ that a lot of people (rightly or wrongly) perceive in EA thinking.
When I encounter someone whoâs working on a project, my first thought isnât âwhatâs the impact of this project?â. Instead, I ask:
âIs this person doing something with a reasonably positive impact on the world, and doing it for good reasons?â
âAre they open to doing something else, if they come to believe that doing so will get them even more of what they value?â
For almost everyone Iâve met within EA, both of those answers are âyesâ, and that seems to me like one of the most important facts about our community, however different our ârelative impactsâ might be.
Even outside of EA, I think that a lot of people still share our core goal of helping others as much as possible, and that this goal manifests in the way they think about their work. In my view, this makes them âalliesâ in a certain fundamental sense. As long as we share that goal, we can find ways to work together, in an alliance against the worldâs more⌠unhelpful forces.
Example: I have a friend whoâs curious about EA, but whose first love is ecology, and who works in a science education nonprofit (but wants to keep looking for better opportunities). I donât know what her actual impact is, but I do know that she really cares about helping people, and I ask her about her work with genuine interest when I see her.
I wouldnât recommend this friend for 80,000 Hours consulting, but I think that as EA grows to incorporate more causes and more people, sheâll eventually find a place in the community. And even if she never takes a new job, itâs good to just have a lot of people in the world who hear the phrase âeffective altruismâ and think âyes, those people are on my side, theyâre trying to help just like I am, I want them to succeedâ. If we want to make that happen, we should be careful to notice when someone is doing something good, even if isnât âoptimizedâ.