Thread

The evolution of effective altruism

66 points · 171 comments · bazzmt

wodow · 1791146665 · focus · HN ↗
I was surprised by the weakness of this article, regardless the potential absurdities of parts of EA.
Why does The Economist consider this the most important issue this week, in a world of complex problems, to splash its first leader on (and more than one page long too)?
1. __MatrixMan__ · 1791152676 · focus · HN ↗
  Effective altruism, like economics, is mostly a bunch post hoc justifications for bad behavior.
  > Actually, if you think real hard about it, we're the good guys
  --the bad guys
  The economist likes it because it resembles what their target audience tells themselves so they can sleep at night.
  1. lanfeust6 · 1791157677 · focus · HN ↗
    The guys who were obsessed with maximizing efficacy of charitable giving, and then later AI risk, are "justifying bad behavior". Right.
    abathologist · 1791170296 · focus · HN ↗
    Well... look at the behavior, it is bad. They use the things you say here to justify it, soo... yes.

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