Week 1 - Effectiveness Mindset
On Effective Altruism
Introduction to Effective Altruism
Defining Thinking Principles
Maximizing Impact
More is better than less
e.g., some charities help 100 or even 1,000 times as many people as others, when given the same amount of resources
Impartiality
Every being matters equally when it comes to their well-being
Continuous Truth-seeking
Committing to continuously reflect on finding the best way to help rather than committing to a specific cause without further reflection
Evidence Based
Quantification of impact
e.g., QALY i.e,. 1 year of healthy life
Community
Working together seems to be more effective than alone
Approach > Conclusion
Not united by any particular solution to the world’s problems, but by a way of thinking.
Research & Action
Research
Figuring out what the best ways to do good are
Action
Taking Action upon research
Examples of EA's Actions
Pandemic
Starting a Public Discourse
Funding Research
Creation of organization e.g., 1daysooner for human vaccine trial
Poverty & Medical Supply
Donation
Createion of organization e.g., 'Wave' for cheaper money transfer
AI alignment
Awareness making e.g., 'Superintelligence' book
Creation of Research Centers & Organizations
Ending Factory Farming
Creation of Organization
e.g., 'Open Wing Alliance' preventing 100 million birds to be caged
e.g., Good Food Institute supporting Alternative Protein
Improving Decision-Making
Forecasting
e.g., Metaculus
Creation of Research center
e.g.,Global Priorities Institute at Oxford University
Four Ideas You Already Agree With
4 Ideas
Helping others is good
vs Helping others is not good
Impartiality is good
vs valuing people's well-being differently is good
Scale is good
vs it doesn't matter if some people die even if it doesn't really cost us anything extra to save their lives
Resources are limited
vs Resources are unlimited
Consequence of those Ideas
Giving people equal consideration or discriminating them arbitrarily
Helping as many people as we can or not
The world is much better. The world is awful. The world can be much better.
There is Suffering
e.g., presently child death ~5.5 million per year
It is getting better
e.g., in the past ~60 million per year
It could be much better
e.g., presently best state ~0.5 million per year
On Scope Sensitivity
On Caring
Scope Insensitivity
Recognizing that our caring via 'feeling' does not scale with the scale of the suffering/well-being we preceive.
Feeling-care does not inform you how important something to you is
Feeling-care is inadequate to inform your decision-making on how to act
e.g,. how much resources to invest in project xyz
Feeling-care misrepresent how much you actually care about situation xyz
Experience it for yourself. How much do you feeling-care about saving 1 live, 10, 100, 1000, 10000.
Does this feeling-care scale 10x,100x,1000x,1000x?
Recommended Approach to Caring for Scope Sensitivity
Caring via Feeling-Caring for Motivation
Caring motivates to help
Caring motivates to prefer helping more rather than less
Caring via Mathematical-Caring for Scaling
Put a number on something you care about
Multiply it
Motivation for Caring
Bad
Based on Selfishness e.g., Laziness, Social Pressure, Competitiveness, Pride
Imagine asking a person to donate all of their disposable money to a good cause - they would most likely decline
Guilt
Exhausting i.e,. non-sustainable
Good
Based on Selflessness e.g., Compassion
Imagine asking a person to donate all of their disposable money to a good cause - they would agree however ask which is the best cause
Happiness for the opportunity to improve
Scope Insensitivity: failing to appreciate the numbers of those who need our help
Example
Persona were asked how much they were willing to pay to save the life of the following groups of birds - from drowning in oil
Group 1: 2,000 birds
Group 2: 20,000 birds
Group 3: 200,000 birds
Result
Group 1: 80USD = 4 Cents/Bird
Group 2: 78USD = 0.4 Cents/Bird
Group 3: 88USD = 0.04 Cents/Bird
Conclusion
Willingness to pay did not increase in proportion with the scale i.e., Scope Insensitivity
What is Scope Insensitivity?
Inability to realize the real scope of a certain quantity
When comparing two different quantities, we fail to notice the difference between them
Occurs usually when quantities are large
Cause of Scope Insensitivity
Human Species has insufficient default ability to proportionally 'imagine' big scales
imagine 2000 birds, now 20,000 birds, now 200,000 birds. Does the second group feel 10x bigger, the third group 100x bigger?
Problems & Solutions
Not adjusting their evaluation of an issue in proportion to the scale of it
Failure to notice scope insensitivity
Clarity of 'Scope Insensitivity'
Insufficient emotional response which actives motivation to care
Connect to the suffering of an individual victim of a large scale suffering
Practice Imagination
largest number of e.g., insects that you can & remember of big of an issue it is
Animal Welfare
Impairs judgement about helping animals i.e., astronomical amount of suffering (factory farming, wild-life)
Collapse of Compassion
When experiencing excessive suffering, one's habitual defense mechanism is to numb ourselves towards it
Cultivate Compassion & Resilience (Equanimity)
Good-intent is insufficient
If the objective is to cause good, one's focus should be on the good caused > feeling good about it
It feels good to save 2,000 or 200,000 birds, however there is a 100 difference in lives saved. There is not a 100 difference in feeling good about it
On Scout Mindset & Thinking Clearly
Why you think you're right - even if you're wrong
Objective
Good Judgements
Accurate Predictions
Good Decisions
Hindrance to Objectives
Unconscious Motivations based on desire i.e., fear, defensiveness
Emotional state influences how we interpret information
Example of Warrior Mindset
Imagine a referee judging the team that you support as committing a foul
It is likely that one will look for reasons why the referee is wrong and not about reasons for why the referee is correct
Imagine a referee judging the opposing team as committing a foul
It is likely that one will look for reasons why the referee is correct, and not about reasons for why the referee is incorrect
Example of Scout Mindset
One has the belief that capital punishment works
Studies shows that it doesn't
'Oh, looks like I might be wrong. This doesn't mean I am bad or stupid'
Warrior Mindset
Objective: Defend, attack, defeat
Behaviour
Some information are allies i.e., to be protected
Some information are enemies i.e., to be defeated
Reflexive behaviour
Elevated adrenaline
Causes
based on desire i.e., fear, defensiveness
Catalyst to Objectives
Scout Mindset
Objective: Understand, not defend
Even if unpleasant, inconvenient
Not to make one idea win or another lose
Behaviour
intrigued by contradictions
Belief that it is virtuous to test beliefs
Experiencing pleasure when learning new information
Causes
Emotional Safety > fear and need to defend
Self-worth not based on their beliefs being right or wrong
Perception Change
Benefit in learning & curiosity
Recommendation to increase good judgements
Not
more logic, rhetoric, probability, economics
Yes
Change the way we feel
Pride instead of ashamed when learning
Intrigued instead of defensive when learning
Purchase fuzzies and utilons separately
Fuzzies
Nurtures sustainable motivation
Nurtures 'altruistic' habit
Not about highest direct impact
Utilons
Facilitates highest direct impact
Best use of one's time
Advise
Fuzzies
Find that which brings you fuzzies
e.g., Volunteering at a Soup Kitchen; Passioante charity like cancer, blindness
Should be beneficial, not harmful
Utilons vs Fuzzies - 20:1 Ratio
Don't Mix
Trying to get fuzzies and utilons at the same time will means that neither ends up done well
Optimising for one thing at a time is more efficient
Personal Reflections
Ideally purchasing utilons should provide fuzzies
Being nurtured by the relationship of caring rather than the content of caring
Fuzzies need to be 'filled' before one can invest the rest into utilons
Without fuzzies one might stop acting altruistically all together
On Tradeoffs
We are in triage every second of every day
Triage
Assigning priority to different patients in emergency medicine
To ration scarce resources
Triage is not a rare phenomenon
Triage is in every decision
Positive Attitude towards Triage
Acknowledge that triage is emotionally difficult to accept
Acknowledge the Sum Total
Who is receiving a No & what impact?
Who is receiving a Yes & what impact?
What is the sum total?
Example
Saving one person or two person?
Impartiality & Wide Empathy
Whether you know them personally or not - they equally have the desire to be healthy and safe
Narrow Empathy is shameful
Allows more people to suffer
Acknowledging Triage
Rather than viewing it wrong ('playing God')
Rather than pretending there is no choice - which makes our decisions worse
Both choices (inaction or action) are choices
Person consciously triaging has a chance ot use their wisdom to improve the outcome
Personal Reflections
Even 'small' actions are morally significant
This brand or that brand might support worker standards, pay, sustainable produce. Running on renewable energy or not
500 Million, But Not A Single One More
Optimism
Never forget what humanity is capable of when we band together and declare battle on what is broken in the world
Small pox started thousands of years ago.
Survival
Humanity as a whole survived albeit millions died
Curiositiy
Then gradually they discovered a solution to it
Gradual Improvement
Other minds came in contact with current methods and improved upon it
Global Cooperation
The world united and eradicted it
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