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Think of it this way: If Warren Buffet had given away half of the money he had started out with before making his fortune, he might not have made nearly as much

Think of it this way: If Warren Buffet had given away half of the money he had started out with before making his fortune, he might not have made nearly as much or become rich at all. Money we have now is always worth more than money we have later. It helps to think about it in the extreme cases. I could give all my income and time away today, but it would seriously hinder my ability to become rich later. I could also just give 1 dollar and 1 hour per year now and feel a little less guilty but it wouldn't really be helping anybody now would it. Now perhaps there is some magical number that I should adhere to that will be the perfect mix of perserving my own time and money and helping others (and assuaging my guilt), but I think it'd be hard to pin down. That said, I'm taking the logical approach that one should aim toward giving the maximum amount of time and effort that one can possibly give. Without question that money and time comes towards the end of one's career. To put it in perspective, the amount of money both Gates and Buffet are donating to charity not only dwarfs the amount that all of the HN users give, it makes it mathematically insignificant. In the end, we're all just buying indulgences.

notahacker 16y ago
The same concept of well-directed small investments now yielding disproportionately huge rewards in future applies to philanthropy as much as to investment. Buffet is something of an outlier in his ability to maximise ROI - an average person's affordable gift of $200 now would arguably help people more if given now than given after a number of years of earning interest averaging marginally above the rate of inflation in a savings account. Sure, if you need that $200 to bootstrap the next Google it's an entirely different matter. I take your point about mathematically insignificance in comparison to Buffet and Gates, but there's no shortage of worthwhile causes they aren't donating to where small donations can make a difference.

notahacker 16y ago

The same concept of well-directed small investments now yielding disproportionately huge rewards in future applies to philanthropy as much as to investment. Buffet is something of an outlier in his ability to maximise ROI - an average person's affordable gift of $200 now would arguably help people more if given now than given after a number of years of earning interest averaging marginally above the rate of inflation in a savings account. Sure, if you need that $200 to bootstrap the next Google it's an entirely different matter. I take your point about mathematically insignificance in comparison to Buffet and Gates, but there's no shortage of worthwhile causes they aren't donating to where small donations can make a difference.