I assumed you were significantly closer to the mean than you are.
There are people here who take ideas seriously even when this brings them to unsual places. Lesswrong is a strange place.
based on my behavior … I care about myself and my loved ones at least dozens-if-not-hundreds of times more.
As much as I understand I should value the joy and suffering of all people equally, I can’t fully act on it. The happiness of my family and friends, of people around me, feels unavoidably important on a really deep level. I set aside money for my much more generous wife to spend on herself, money that can’t be given away, so that she can have some spending money she doesn’t feel guilty about. I buy presents for my sisters. I pay to go to contra dances. This is only “revealed preference”, however, in as much as it reveals me to be a human, with all the biologically based irrationalities that brings. I would be a better person if I could bring myself to spend all that money on people who need it more, but I don’t let angst over my imperfection keep me from doing my best to help others.
There are people here who take ideas seriously even when this brings them to unsual places. Lesswrong is a strange place.
As much as I understand I should value the joy and suffering of all people equally, I can’t fully act on it. The happiness of my family and friends, of people around me, feels unavoidably important on a really deep level. I set aside money for my much more generous wife to spend on herself, money that can’t be given away, so that she can have some spending money she doesn’t feel guilty about. I buy presents for my sisters. I pay to go to contra dances. This is only “revealed preference”, however, in as much as it reveals me to be a human, with all the biologically based irrationalities that brings. I would be a better person if I could bring myself to spend all that money on people who need it more, but I don’t let angst over my imperfection keep me from doing my best to help others.