Other bad phrases: “Saving the world” or “saving the planet”. They are usually used in a context where the impact could not possibly match up with actual world-saving or planet-saving (with some exceptions).
But I also think “doing good” is problematic. It also lacks a sense of scope, and it also suffers from philosophical disagreements about the nature of the good.
Problem is, if you want to create emotional impact in an audience that is diverse in its philosophical goals, ideas about strategy and willingness to accept costs, then you have to use language that doesn’t alienate too many and yet has the emotional appeal. This only leaves you with phrases that are ultimately empty marketing terms. But if you cut them out, you lose the motivational hook as a common denominator. Marketing matters.
I’m not an effective altruist and don’t think I ever will be one. I’m here only out of curiosity and intellectual entertainment. Perhaps this allows me to give you an honest “outside” perspective. My main reasons for not donating 10% of my income or make other similar commitments:
I am instinctively too egoistic and I don’t like the cognitive dissonance from being a little altruistic, but not as much as I reasonably could be. I feel best when I “play for my own side” in life, am productive to get only what I want and don’t think about the suffering of others. I feel better when I don’t care, and I prefer feeling better over caring. They say giving makes happy, but I find it brings me no equivalent pleasure.
Society and the law already demand a great deal of altruism and (what they think of as) morality from me. Some of it in the form of taxes, some of it in the form of restrictions on what I can do, some of it in the form of implicit status attacks. Of course, I get a lot in return, but subjetively it doesn’t feel balanced. Perhaps if I were richer or had higher life satisfaction, I might be more generous in addition to what is already demanded.
In many morally relevant domains, there is a discrepancy between what I feel is important and what people in general feel is important. In addition, I have given up on convincing people through value talk. Most people will never value what I value, and vice versa. There are no cost-effective ways to change these discrepancies, and even though EA is a multi-domain endeavor, it is ultimately about empowering humanity to fulfill its preferences, half of which are more or less opposed to mine.
Psychologically, uncertainty cripples my motivation. I am not an “expected utility maximizer”. But in EA, certainty of impact and scope of impact are somewhat negatively correlated. And where positive effects are really certain, I expect the most cost-effective ground will eventually be covered by the EA movement without me, and I’d rather other people pay than me (donor’s dilemma).
These are the core reasons why I have decided against EA in my personal life. It does not preclude small donations or ethical consumption, both of which I make, but it makes me recoil from real commitments, unless I have an unexpected windfall or something.