3 ms·

Burn out wasn’t the point. I explicitly disregarded that by putting in the premise that the hypothetical person is not and will not get burned out with that ph

Burn out wasn’t the point. I explicitly disregarded that by putting in the premise that the hypothetical person is not and will not get burned out with that philanthropy schedule. I could have just as well have written that they made a million a year and only donated 5%—that’s besides (my/the) point. I guess we are all so alienated these days that we don’t find working on Wall Street—or Main Street—in order to indirectly help other people with our money instead of helping directly not the least bit weird at all. Or to help people by working as a programmer and donating a lot of your salary to some school instead of just working there as a teacher, helping people directly (to use another example). (Oh, that reminds me. I need to take my vitamin D supplements right about now. I calculated that being in the Sun is not worth my time so I have to compensate a bit, you see.)

UnFleshedOne 6y ago
Well, in the end, do you want to avoid feeling weird, or to help people? Both of those are valid desires, but they don't always go together. Sometimes you can find something that does both and that's great, but not everyone can.
- yrimaxi 6y ago
  Describing non-alienation as “feeling good” (as another commenter did) or “not feeling weird” is a great way to pathologize my observation of how weird it is to work a six-figure, ad/surveillance-optimizing job at Google in order for there to be more malaria nets in Africa. Trust me: I don’t believe that EA is sound in any way (or “effective”, if you like), but in this thread I chose to focus on just one aspect of it, indeed its most bizarre feature, which apparently isn’t bizarre at all to all of the Soylent-drinking life-optimizers out there, so my point has been like, as they say, seeds on barren ground.
  - UnFleshedOne 6y ago
    Sorry, I was using your own terms from the post I replied to. I didn't mean to sound patronizing (well, only a little bit :)). My point stands though: "non-alienation" and "actually helping" are orthogonal. But not usually treated as such. You have a point about working in a net-negative occupations. You might be doing more harm over all.

UnFleshedOne 6y ago

Well, in the end, do you want to avoid feeling weird, or to help people? Both of those are valid desires, but they don't always go together. Sometimes you can find something that does both and that's great, but not everyone can.

yrimaxi 6y ago
Describing non-alienation as “feeling good” (as another commenter did) or “not feeling weird” is a great way to pathologize my observation of how weird it is to work a six-figure, ad/surveillance-optimizing job at Google in order for there to be more malaria nets in Africa. Trust me: I don’t believe that EA is sound in any way (or “effective”, if you like), but in this thread I chose to focus on just one aspect of it, indeed its most bizarre feature, which apparently isn’t bizarre at all to all of the Soylent-drinking life-optimizers out there, so my point has been like, as they say, seeds on barren ground.
- UnFleshedOne 6y ago
  Sorry, I was using your own terms from the post I replied to. I didn't mean to sound patronizing (well, only a little bit :)). My point stands though: "non-alienation" and "actually helping" are orthogonal. But not usually treated as such. You have a point about working in a net-negative occupations. You might be doing more harm over all.