Strong upvoted, because this post made me realize I myself am doing this “merge” and it seems like a useful distinction to draw that I haven’t been thinking about enough!
The biggest fear I have about pushing too hard towards purchasing these things separately is addressed in your post: I agree that “your efforts to do good will be cut off from the energy the accomplishment desire provides — a deprivation that could be costly, especially given that cases like Bob’s above only make a difference to Bob’s attitudes, not his actions.”
In some sense, I’d guess that a pretty sizable % of this community is attracted by the idea that one could do big things while also doing good things. Certainly that is a strong undercurrent in a lot of Eliezer’s writing. And if we push too hard back against that, there might be something of value lost. So I guess I agree with the post and am similarly mystified by what to do about it :)
Strong upvoted, because this post made me realize I myself am doing this “merge” and it seems like a useful distinction to draw that I haven’t been thinking about enough!
The biggest fear I have about pushing too hard towards purchasing these things separately is addressed in your post: I agree that “your efforts to do good will be cut off from the energy the accomplishment desire provides — a deprivation that could be costly, especially given that cases like Bob’s above only make a difference to Bob’s attitudes, not his actions.”
In some sense, I’d guess that a pretty sizable % of this community is attracted by the idea that one could do big things while also doing good things. Certainly that is a strong undercurrent in a lot of Eliezer’s writing. And if we push too hard back against that, there might be something of value lost. So I guess I agree with the post and am similarly mystified by what to do about it :)
Glad to hear you found it useful.