Well, I’m new here, but I thought I might as well just try it. As far as I can tell, a large segment of LessWrong readers are highly interested in philanthropy, especially existential risk reduction. Given this, there seems to have been surprisingly little discussion as to how to best lead ones life to maximize its positive impact.
Whilst there has been some discussion with regard to selecting between charities, I have seen almost no discussion on choosing between careers, or on how to structure ones life more generally. If the type of rationality taught on this site is to be widely applicable, then it should be able to be applied to such situations successfully.
Whilst obviously these choices are highly individual, I nevertheless think that a group effort should be able to shed some light on the problem. In particular, the standard to beat is quite low—most people have only very limited knowledge of the careers they go into, and make their decision with only limited analysis. It is even rarer for people to seriously consider what actions they can do to maximise the impact they have on the world, although many people choose careers nominally in order to help people.
Whilst I don’t want this post to be about myself, here are a few details about myself: I’m just about to enter university (the university is generally considered to be somewhere amongst the top 10 in the world, and is certainly in the top 4 in my country, the UK) to read Mathematics. I believe that, given my aptitudes, I am best able to make a positive impact on the world by attempting to maximize the money I earn, and donating that. I am undecided between existential risk reduction and more ordinary causes. I don’t subscribe to any formal moral system, but my feelings are quite closely aligned with preference utilitarianism. I’m unsure on how much money I should donate, but feel that in the long term I should certainly aim to donate any money I earn whose consumption would not serve to further increase my happiness. If anyone wants more details about my personal situation, feel free to PM me.
I believe that, given my aptitudes, I am best able to make a positive impact on the world by attempting to maximize the money I earn, and donating that.
I’m curious how you came to that belief. For example one possible way might be something like:
For maximum efficiency, altruists should divide up into “donors” and “doers”. We need X donors to support each doer. In order to decide whether I should be a donor or doer, I should compare my (expected) ratio of money-making ability to [whatever ability is needed to be a doer] with others, and aim to be a donor if my ratio is among the top X/(X+1) fraction of all altruists.
Or is it more like:
It seems that currently there are many people wanting to be “doers” but few wanting to be “donors”, as a result of which the marginal utility of my becoming a donor is higher than the marginal utility of becoming a doer (even if in a first-best world I would be a doer instead).
Or perhaps:
Eliezer’s plan of building FAI in a basement with a dozen or so geniuses is basically sound. I’m pretty sure I’m not qualified to be one of those FAI builders or their support staff, so I should be a donor instead.
Or something else? (I’m not sure if you’ve given the question that much thought, or if you just went with instinct, but if it’s the former, explaining your thought process might help others make the same decision.)
I believe that, given my aptitudes, I am best able to make a positive impact on the world by attempting to maximize the money I earn, and donating that.
I’m curious how you came to that belief.
I arrived at the belief primarily instinctively, and am not particularly confident in it; I’d be happy to revise it on the basis of any more data I receive.
My rational is, roughly, that most adequately funded philanthropic organisations have no difficulties attracting talent, and sot the number of “doers” is determined primarily by demand-side factors. Therefore, by becoming a doer, I would be preventing another would-be doer from attaining a job. Whilst it’s possible that this person would go on and contribute in other ways, such as by being a donor, I think it’s very likely that they would not (most people seem to be strongly attracted to personally making a difference.)
Therefore, were my becoming a “doer” to have a positive impact, I would have to do such a better job than the person who has been displaced by me, that it would outweigh the loss of donations that I would otherwise have made. Whilst it would probably would be true that I would be more capable than the person who has lost out on getting a job because of me (supply growing should result in the least-capable losing out most), I don’t believe that I have any major advantage over other people.
Whilst there seems to be no shortage of talented people looking for non-profit jobs, there is always a shortage of money, and my donating would be unlikely decrease anyone else’s donations. So, I feel this is the more effective option.
I think I’m partly also influenced by a heuristic I sometimes use, that of avoiding what seems to be the easy option out. Most people seem to want to be intimately involved with the causes they help, yet there seems to be little justification for this, so I feel compelled to do the opposite. However, it occurs to me that I might in fact be attracted to the status and other benefits of high-paying jobs, so this may be just a rationalization.
I’m much less confident of this conclusion now than when I began writing this comment, which I think is probably a good thing. I’d be interested to hear arguments from people who’ve come to opposing conclusions to me.
Whilst there seems to be no shortage of talented people looking for non-profit jobs, there is always a shortage of money, and my donating would be unlikely decrease anyone else’s donations. So, I feel this is the more effective option.
That’s probably a safe assumption to make in most charitable fields, but not in existential risk reduction. For example, there are not enough qualified candidates for the position of FAI programmer, or to lead the project that Nesov recently suggested.
Compare the following hypothetical scenarios:
There are qualified candidates for an FAI team ready to go, just waiting for sufficient financial resources.
SIAI gets a $1 billion donation tomorrow, but has nobody to hire.
Which is easier to remedy? I suspect 1, because people like Peter Thiel can probably be persuaded to donate significantly more money if only they thought FAI had a more realistic chance of success.
Come to think of it, your main comparative advantage is that you’re young. There are plenty of people in the world who can be donors, but not too many who have realized, at an age like yours, that they should think strategically about how to change the future. Having such a realization can be compared to winning the lottery. It may be that you should aim to be a donor after all, but to do so without thinking very carefully about whether you can specialize in an area that the future will really need, would be to throw away the winning ticket instead of cashing it.
(ETA: The above assumes that the main thing that a young person can do that others can’t (or can’t do as well) is to become a specialist that the future will need badly. But perhaps there are others?)
Well, I’m new here, but I thought I might as well just try it. As far as I can tell, a large segment of LessWrong readers are highly interested in philanthropy, especially existential risk reduction. Given this, there seems to have been surprisingly little discussion as to how to best lead ones life to maximize its positive impact.
Whilst there has been some discussion with regard to selecting between charities, I have seen almost no discussion on choosing between careers, or on how to structure ones life more generally. If the type of rationality taught on this site is to be widely applicable, then it should be able to be applied to such situations successfully.
Whilst obviously these choices are highly individual, I nevertheless think that a group effort should be able to shed some light on the problem. In particular, the standard to beat is quite low—most people have only very limited knowledge of the careers they go into, and make their decision with only limited analysis. It is even rarer for people to seriously consider what actions they can do to maximise the impact they have on the world, although many people choose careers nominally in order to help people.
Whilst I don’t want this post to be about myself, here are a few details about myself: I’m just about to enter university (the university is generally considered to be somewhere amongst the top 10 in the world, and is certainly in the top 4 in my country, the UK) to read Mathematics. I believe that, given my aptitudes, I am best able to make a positive impact on the world by attempting to maximize the money I earn, and donating that. I am undecided between existential risk reduction and more ordinary causes. I don’t subscribe to any formal moral system, but my feelings are quite closely aligned with preference utilitarianism. I’m unsure on how much money I should donate, but feel that in the long term I should certainly aim to donate any money I earn whose consumption would not serve to further increase my happiness. If anyone wants more details about my personal situation, feel free to PM me.
I’m curious how you came to that belief. For example one possible way might be something like:
Or is it more like:
Or perhaps:
Or something else? (I’m not sure if you’ve given the question that much thought, or if you just went with instinct, but if it’s the former, explaining your thought process might help others make the same decision.)
I arrived at the belief primarily instinctively, and am not particularly confident in it; I’d be happy to revise it on the basis of any more data I receive.
My rational is, roughly, that most adequately funded philanthropic organisations have no difficulties attracting talent, and sot the number of “doers” is determined primarily by demand-side factors. Therefore, by becoming a doer, I would be preventing another would-be doer from attaining a job. Whilst it’s possible that this person would go on and contribute in other ways, such as by being a donor, I think it’s very likely that they would not (most people seem to be strongly attracted to personally making a difference.)
Therefore, were my becoming a “doer” to have a positive impact, I would have to do such a better job than the person who has been displaced by me, that it would outweigh the loss of donations that I would otherwise have made. Whilst it would probably would be true that I would be more capable than the person who has lost out on getting a job because of me (supply growing should result in the least-capable losing out most), I don’t believe that I have any major advantage over other people.
Whilst there seems to be no shortage of talented people looking for non-profit jobs, there is always a shortage of money, and my donating would be unlikely decrease anyone else’s donations. So, I feel this is the more effective option.
I think I’m partly also influenced by a heuristic I sometimes use, that of avoiding what seems to be the easy option out. Most people seem to want to be intimately involved with the causes they help, yet there seems to be little justification for this, so I feel compelled to do the opposite. However, it occurs to me that I might in fact be attracted to the status and other benefits of high-paying jobs, so this may be just a rationalization.
I’m much less confident of this conclusion now than when I began writing this comment, which I think is probably a good thing. I’d be interested to hear arguments from people who’ve come to opposing conclusions to me.
That’s probably a safe assumption to make in most charitable fields, but not in existential risk reduction. For example, there are not enough qualified candidates for the position of FAI programmer, or to lead the project that Nesov recently suggested.
Compare the following hypothetical scenarios:
There are qualified candidates for an FAI team ready to go, just waiting for sufficient financial resources.
SIAI gets a $1 billion donation tomorrow, but has nobody to hire.
Which is easier to remedy? I suspect 1, because people like Peter Thiel can probably be persuaded to donate significantly more money if only they thought FAI had a more realistic chance of success.
Come to think of it, your main comparative advantage is that you’re young. There are plenty of people in the world who can be donors, but not too many who have realized, at an age like yours, that they should think strategically about how to change the future. Having such a realization can be compared to winning the lottery. It may be that you should aim to be a donor after all, but to do so without thinking very carefully about whether you can specialize in an area that the future will really need, would be to throw away the winning ticket instead of cashing it.
(ETA: The above assumes that the main thing that a young person can do that others can’t (or can’t do as well) is to become a specialist that the future will need badly. But perhaps there are others?)
Not sure if you’ve already seen them, but here are a few posts that might be relevant:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/546/what_should_i_do/
http://lesswrong.com/lw/5j7/discussion_pathways_for_the_aspiring_agi/
http://lesswrong.com/lw/38u/best_career_models_for_doing_research/