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That's exactly what "effective altruism" means. It's just philosophical marketing to dress the basest selfishness as altruism. Google the phrase up the next tim

by frollo 4y ago

That's exactly what "effective altruism" means. It's just philosophical marketing to dress the basest selfishness as altruism. Google the phrase up the next time you feel you have too much faith in humanity.

derefr 4y ago
Figuring out which charities 1. aren’t scams; 2. aren’t wasting 90% of your money on on overhead; and 3. are doing something impactful rather than something frivolous with your money, is “the basest selfishness”? If that’s not how you personally define Effective Altruism, then what name would you give to the concept I just described?
- cogman10 4y ago
  That's not what "Effective Altruism" is. [1] Effective altruism plays the game where you can say "What's better, to give $10 today, or should I invest that $10 and then give it away when I die?" It's all about coming up with scenarios like this where you can justify selfishness because "eventually, the amount of good I'll do will pay off". It's popular with the rich and famous because they can justify building huge empires and hording large amounts of resources (while spending a bit on themselves of course) because, some day, they'll give back what they made. It's quiet literally the philosophy SBF used in the FTX fiasco to justify setting up a ponzie scheme. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism
  - whatshisface 4y ago
    It's changed a lot since Peter Singer started it but what it's really supposed to mean is, "stop donating to the opera house, kids are dying in Africa."
  - gruez 4y ago
    >Effective altruism plays the game where you can say "What's better, to give $10 today, or should I invest that $10 and then give it away when I die?" All of this seems to have little resemblance to what I see in the EA community. Specifically, I'm seeing many EA organizations doing good in the now and present (eg. malaria nets), and have never heard of any EA organizations advocating people to invest money so they can donate money. >It's quiet literally the philosophy SBF used in the FTX fiasco to justify setting up a ponzie scheme. You don't see the issue of using a single person to paint an entire movement, especially since the movement explicitly disavows illegal actions to raise money?
archgoon 4y ago
Google result: > Effective altruism is a research field and practical community that aims to find the best ways to help others, and put them into practice. Doesn't sound that bad.

by frollo 4y ago

derefr 4y ago

Figuring out which charities 1. aren’t scams; 2. aren’t wasting 90% of your money on on overhead; and 3. are doing something impactful rather than something frivolous with your money, is “the basest selfishness”? If that’s not how you personally define Effective Altruism, then what name would you give to the concept I just described?

cogman10 4y ago
That's not what "Effective Altruism" is. [1] Effective altruism plays the game where you can say "What's better, to give $10 today, or should I invest that $10 and then give it away when I die?" It's all about coming up with scenarios like this where you can justify selfishness because "eventually, the amount of good I'll do will pay off". It's popular with the rich and famous because they can justify building huge empires and hording large amounts of resources (while spending a bit on themselves of course) because, some day, they'll give back what they made. It's quiet literally the philosophy SBF used in the FTX fiasco to justify setting up a ponzie scheme. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism
- whatshisface 4y ago
  It's changed a lot since Peter Singer started it but what it's really supposed to mean is, "stop donating to the opera house, kids are dying in Africa."
- gruez 4y ago
  >Effective altruism plays the game where you can say "What's better, to give $10 today, or should I invest that $10 and then give it away when I die?" All of this seems to have little resemblance to what I see in the EA community. Specifically, I'm seeing many EA organizations doing good in the now and present (eg. malaria nets), and have never heard of any EA organizations advocating people to invest money so they can donate money. >It's quiet literally the philosophy SBF used in the FTX fiasco to justify setting up a ponzie scheme. You don't see the issue of using a single person to paint an entire movement, especially since the movement explicitly disavows illegal actions to raise money?

archgoon 4y ago

Google result: > Effective altruism is a research field and practical community that aims to find the best ways to help others, and put them into practice. Doesn't sound that bad.