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

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.