The set of people seriously working to reduce existential risks is very small (perhaps a few hundred, depending on who and how you count). This gives strong general reason to suppose that the marginal impact of an individual can be large, in cases where the individual aims to reduce existential risks directly and is strategic/sane/rational about how (and not in cases where the individual simply goes about their business as one of billions in the larger economy).
Many LW readers are capable of understanding that there are risks, thinking through the differential impact their donations would have on different kinds of risk mitigation, and donating money in a manner that would help. Fewer, but still many, are also capable of improving the quality of thought regarding existential risks in relevant communities (e.g., in the academic departments where they study or work, or on LW or other portions of the blogosphere). And while I agree with Hal’s point that most politics is used as entertainment, there is reason to suppose that improving the quality of discussion of a very-high-impact, under-researched, tiny-numbers-of-people-currently-involved topic like existential risks can improve both (a) the well-directedness of resources like mine that are already being put toward existential risks, and (b) the amount of such resources, in dollars and in brainpower.
The set of people seriously working to reduce existential risks is very small (perhaps a few hundred, depending on who and how you count). This gives strong general reason to suppose that the marginal impact of an individual can be large, in cases where the individual aims to reduce existential risks directly and is strategic/sane/rational about how (and not in cases where the individual simply goes about their business as one of billions in the larger economy).
Many LW readers are capable of understanding that there are risks, thinking through the differential impact their donations would have on different kinds of risk mitigation, and donating money in a manner that would help. Fewer, but still many, are also capable of improving the quality of thought regarding existential risks in relevant communities (e.g., in the academic departments where they study or work, or on LW or other portions of the blogosphere). And while I agree with Hal’s point that most politics is used as entertainment, there is reason to suppose that improving the quality of discussion of a very-high-impact, under-researched, tiny-numbers-of-people-currently-involved topic like existential risks can improve both (a) the well-directedness of resources like mine that are already being put toward existential risks, and (b) the amount of such resources, in dollars and in brainpower.