To answer these questions it seems like it would be quite helpful to have domain specific expertise. So then, along the lines of comparative advantage, wouldn’t it be more effective to earn to give? And following that thought, while the coronavirus is certainly scary, is it actually worth putting resources towards over things like existential risk reduction?
Perhaps the response to these points is that in practice, the coronavirus is particularly salient, and people are more likely to help out by doing research into these questions than they are with eg. existential risk reduction or earning to give.
Do you know of places that would make good use of donations? If so, I strongly encourage you to write them up, ideally as answer here.
No, I don’t know of places that would be particularly good to donate to. The WHO seems like a safe bet. Also, GiveWell is looking in to it (which I also noted in the other post).
Personally I suspect that even without knowing the best place to donate to, earning to give would be a more efficient use of time. However, I don’t feel too confident in that. I don’t know enough about how effective professionals actually are in practice, and LessWrongers in general seem to be extremely capable, even when venturing outside of their areas of expertise.
I also think a top-level post making the case for or against focusing on COVID vs. (other?) X-risk is a great idea.
To answer these questions it seems like it would be quite helpful to have domain specific expertise. So then, along the lines of comparative advantage, wouldn’t it be more effective to earn to give? And following that thought, while the coronavirus is certainly scary, is it actually worth putting resources towards over things like existential risk reduction?
Perhaps the response to these points is that in practice, the coronavirus is particularly salient, and people are more likely to help out by doing research into these questions than they are with eg. existential risk reduction or earning to give.
Do you know of places that would make good use of donations? If so, I strongly encourage you to write them up, ideally as an answer here.
I also think a top-level post making the case for or against focusing on COVID vs. (other?) X-risk is a great idea.
No, I don’t know of places that would be particularly good to donate to. The WHO seems like a safe bet. Also, GiveWell is looking in to it (which I also noted in the other post).
Personally I suspect that even without knowing the best place to donate to, earning to give would be a more efficient use of time. However, I don’t feel too confident in that. I don’t know enough about how effective professionals actually are in practice, and LessWrongers in general seem to be extremely capable, even when venturing outside of their areas of expertise.
I agree. I just posted this question.