<story><title>Notes on Effective Altruism</title><url>https://michaelnotebook.com/eanotes/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jefftk</author><text>(I&amp;#x27;m the Jeff mentioned one the piece)&lt;p&gt;This is a really good critique, but the &amp;quot;misery trap&amp;quot; section feels like it is describing a problem that EA definitely had early on, but mostly doesn&amp;#x27;t now?&lt;p&gt;In early EA, people started thinking hard about this idea of doing the most good they could. Naively, this suggests doing things like giving up things that are seriously important to you (like having children), illegibily make you more productive (like a good work environment), or provide important flexibility (like having free time), and the author quotes some early EAs struggling with this conflict, like:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; my inner voice in early 2016 would automatically convert all money I spent (eg on dinner) to a fractional “death counter” of lives in expectation I could have saved if I’d donated it to good charities. Most EAs I mentioned that to at the time were like ah yeah seems reasonable&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I really don&amp;#x27;t think many EAs would say &amp;quot;seems reasonable&amp;quot; now. If someone says this to me I&amp;#x27;d give some of my personal history with this idea and talk about how it turns out that in practice this works terribly for people: it makes you miserable, very slightly increases how much you have available to donate, and massively decreases your likely long-term impact through burnout, depression, and short-term thinking.&lt;p&gt;One piece of writing that I think was helpful in turning this around was &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.givinggladly.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;cheerfully.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.givinggladly.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;cheerfully.html&lt;/a&gt; Another was &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.benkuhn.net&amp;#x2F;box&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.benkuhn.net&amp;#x2F;box&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think it&amp;#x27;s not a coincidence that the examples the author links are 5+ years old? If people are still getting caught in this trap, though, I&amp;#x27;d be interested to see more? (And potentially write more on why it&amp;#x27;s not a good application of EA thinking.)&lt;p&gt;In case people are curious: Julia and I now have three kids and it&amp;#x27;s been 10+ years since stress and conflict about painful trade-offs between our own happiness and making the world better were a major issue for us.</text></comment>
<story><title>Notes on Effective Altruism</title><url>https://michaelnotebook.com/eanotes/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dash2</author><text>A good companion to this piece would be John Stuart Mill&amp;#x27;s autobiography, where he describes his nervous breakdown after being raised as a utilitarian by his father: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gutenberg.org&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;10378&amp;#x2F;10378-h&amp;#x2F;10378-h.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gutenberg.org&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;10378&amp;#x2F;10378-h&amp;#x2F;10378-h.htm&lt;/a&gt;. It raises some of the same issues:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In this frame of mind it occurred to me to put the question directly to myself: &amp;quot;Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?&amp;quot; And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, &amp;quot;No!&amp;quot; At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down. All my happiness was to have been found in the continual pursuit of this end. The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means? I seemed to have nothing left to live for.</text></comment>