I believe Peter Singer actually originally advocated the asceticism you mention, but eventually moved towards “try to give 10% of your income”, because people were actually willing to do that, and his goal was to actually help people, not uphold a particular abstract ideal.
An interesting implication, if this generalizes: “Don’t advocate the moral beliefs you think people should follow. Advocate the moral beliefs which hearing you advocate them would actually cause other people to behave better.”
Just a sidenote: If you are the kind of person who is often worried about letting people down, entertaining the suspicion that most people follow this strategy already is a fast, efficient way to drive yourself completely insane.
“You’re doing fine.”
“Oh, I know this game. I’m actually failing massively, but you thought, well, this is the best he can do, so I might as well make him think he succeeded. DON’T LIE TO ME! AAAAH...”
I believe Peter Singer actually originally advocated the asceticism you mention, but eventually moved towards “try to give 10% of your income”, because people were actually willing to do that, and his goal was to actually help people, not uphold a particular abstract ideal.
An interesting implication, if this generalizes: “Don’t advocate the moral beliefs you think people should follow. Advocate the moral beliefs which hearing you advocate them would actually cause other people to behave better.”
Just a sidenote: If you are the kind of person who is often worried about letting people down, entertaining the suspicion that most people follow this strategy already is a fast, efficient way to drive yourself completely insane.
“You’re doing fine.”
“Oh, I know this game. I’m actually failing massively, but you thought, well, this is the best he can do, so I might as well make him think he succeeded. DON’T LIE TO ME! AAAAH...”
Sometimes I wonder how much of LW is “nerds” rediscovering on their own how neuro-typical communication works.
I don’t mean to say I am not a “nerd” in this sense :).
The result bears about as much resemblance to real people as an FRP character sheet and rulebook.