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The evolution of effective altruism

66 points · 171 comments · bazzmt

  1. cyanydeez · · focus · HN ↗
    Just a magical mental gymnastics for someone who got the message that greed is bad, but wanted to continue being greedy.
    1. bawolff · · focus · HN ↗
      Meh, they have some beliefs i disagree with, but ultimately they are spending money on things like feeding the hungry.

      I feel like there is this weird thing where people will criticize people who do charity work in not quite the right way (from the criticizers perspective), but are totally fine with people who just use their money to buy a yacht.

      I'd much rather have people spend their money on feeding the hungry, even imperfectly then spending it on other pursuits.

      I sometimes wonder what the critics of EA are doing to eradicate the ills of the world or even their local community. Is it more than what EA is doing? If not, i'd say those in glass houses should be wary of throwing stones.

      1. AnimalMuppet · · focus · HN ↗
        > Meh, they have some beliefs i disagree with, but ultimately they are spending money on things like feeding the hungry.

        Are they? To what degree are they? And to what degree are they not helping the hungry today, in order to amass more money so that they can in theory help the hungry more tomorrow?

        I can respect someone like Bill Gates. He hasn't been perfect, not by a long shot, but he's put real money into really trying to help real problems. What's the track record of the effective altruists? (Genuine question - I haven't researched them enough to know.)

        1. jefftk · · focus · HN ↗
          Feeding the hungry in particular is uncommon, but global poverty (usually malaria nets and other specific impactful + neglected interventions) is the largest cause area in EA, and something I've personally donated a lot to.
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