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I've done this for over a decade, and "Effective Altruism" does NOT prevent midlife crises. There's more nuance to it. (In my case, my day job that paid VERY we

I've done this for over a decade, and "Effective Altruism" does NOT prevent midlife crises. There's more nuance to it. (In my case, my day job that paid VERY well involved things that are very much against my ethics. Even giving away 20% of the money to good causes didn't stop the guilt. So now I'm "retired" but mostly just wallowing in guilt of enabling horrific things while lying to myself about "making the world better" on the fringes.)

fizwhiz 4y ago
Damn dude what did you do? Sell Ads to teens?
- WJW 4y ago
  There's plenty of worse things you can do in eg the chemical industries or in public relations.
- ccooffee 4y ago
  Worked for a large silicon valley company in the military-industrial space.
havblue 4y ago
I wonder some of the time what role self deception can play in finding meaning. If we only have so much agency to make a difference in the world, how much should we beat ourselves up over the inability to change it?
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  I don't think that's a question of deception at all. Just measure yourself up against the amount of change that you can and want to have on the world. It's pretty simple. If you want to save or improve 10 lives, do that. It doesn't matter if there are millions of people still starving. You still made the incremental change that you wanted to
- ccooffee 4y ago
  > If we only have so much agency to make a difference in the world, how much should we beat ourselves up over the inability to change it? Definitely something to consider. For a long time, I justified my actions with a combination of "well, I'm doing good with the money", "if I didn't do this, someone else would so quitting doesn't accomplish anything", and "unlike a narrative protagonist, I don't have the capability to change the world".
alecbz 4y ago
I think effective altruism and the kind of altruism that can give someone deeper meaning and connection (and thus avert things like midlife crises) are not the same, sometimes maybe mutually exclusive. Going out to a remote country and helping people directly yourself, while you live with them and are integrated with their lives, might give you a sense of connection and meaning[0], but EA would likely dictate that this is a pretty ineffective use of your time, since you're probably much better at things like $YOUR_CAREER than you are at directly helping people in remote countries with their problems. So you should instead do $YOUR_CAREER, make money and donate it to people who can help others more directly, with perhaps a less personal touch (more "mass distributing mosquito nets", less "helping individual families with issues"). [0]: Of course if you're completely ineffective, you might not feel good about it. But I think the level of effectiveness required to make you feel good is much, much lower than the optimal levels of effectiveness that EA is shooting for.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

fizwhiz 4y ago

Damn dude what did you do? Sell Ads to teens?

WJW 4y ago
There's plenty of worse things you can do in eg the chemical industries or in public relations.
ccooffee 4y ago
Worked for a large silicon valley company in the military-industrial space.

havblue 4y ago

I wonder some of the time what role self deception can play in finding meaning. If we only have so much agency to make a difference in the world, how much should we beat ourselves up over the inability to change it?

s1artibartfast 4y ago
I don't think that's a question of deception at all. Just measure yourself up against the amount of change that you can and want to have on the world. It's pretty simple. If you want to save or improve 10 lives, do that. It doesn't matter if there are millions of people still starving. You still made the incremental change that you wanted to
ccooffee 4y ago
> If we only have so much agency to make a difference in the world, how much should we beat ourselves up over the inability to change it? Definitely something to consider. For a long time, I justified my actions with a combination of "well, I'm doing good with the money", "if I didn't do this, someone else would so quitting doesn't accomplish anything", and "unlike a narrative protagonist, I don't have the capability to change the world".

alecbz 4y ago

I think effective altruism and the kind of altruism that can give someone deeper meaning and connection (and thus avert things like midlife crises) are not the same, sometimes maybe mutually exclusive. Going out to a remote country and helping people directly yourself, while you live with them and are integrated with their lives, might give you a sense of connection and meaning[0], but EA would likely dictate that this is a pretty ineffective use of your time, since you're probably much better at things like $YOUR_CAREER than you are at directly helping people in remote countries with their problems. So you should instead do $YOUR_CAREER, make money and donate it to people who can help others more directly, with perhaps a less personal touch (more "mass distributing mosquito nets", less "helping individual families with issues"). [0]: Of course if you're completely ineffective, you might not feel good about it. But I think the level of effectiveness required to make you feel good is much, much lower than the optimal levels of effectiveness that EA is shooting for.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]