“My lover, effective altruism” by Natalie_Cargill

“My lover, effective altruism” by Natalie_Cargill

Crossposted from Substack. This post is part of a 30-posts-in-30-days ordeal at Inkhaven. All suboptimalities are the result of that. This is part 2, here is part 1 in my EA mini series!

On my way to my tenth EAG in a decade, my brother-in-law explained effective altruism to me.

At first, he couldn’t quite remember if he’d heard the phrase before. But he searched the corners of his mind until the definition made itself known: “yeah, it's just a bunch of wankers who pretend to have social impact, but all they do is go to conferences and raise money and they’ve never had any impact at all.”

I have never had any chill. I did not develop it in that moment. If anyone is going to say EA is just a bunch of wankers, it's going to be me, newbie.

“That's interesting, Ben, but I think it's a serious misconception — you might not be aware that EA has literally raised billions of dollars for global health charities, which very likely saved hundreds of thousands of children's lives (do you hate children, Ben?) They have literally stopped millions of hens being tortured in cages too small for them [...]

---

First published:
April 17th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sA5iFynuMJQAuJ6ku/my-lover-effective-altruism

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(250)

“Possible mistake EAs are making and shout out to Pause AI UK” by Michelle_Hutchinson

“Possible mistake EAs are making and shout out to Pause AI UK” by Michelle_Hutchinson

I think right now EAs might be making a significant mistake by paying insufficient attention to the political realm. As EAs we tend to figure out what's most impactful for us to work on and focus hard...

29 Kesä 6min

“Coming Around To Political Donations” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

“Coming Around To Political Donations” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Five years ago I read a post on the EA Forum arguing that "election campaign contributions might be a way in which you can have a substantial impact as a small donor". It struck me as weird but plausi...

12 Kesä 4min

“animal welfare has an evidence problem” by matthes

“animal welfare has an evidence problem” by matthes

Why I stopped donating to animal welfare charities but feel more motivated than ever to redirect money and talent to the cause. I have wanted to write this post for a while. It is an uncomfortable thi...

6 Kesä 26min

“After making sure we don’t all die, this should be the first priority” by Yaqi Grover

“After making sure we don’t all die, this should be the first priority” by Yaqi Grover

A new article went viral on Twitter today: Nan Ransohoff's "The Third Wave of American Philanthropy" (link). Worth reading first. Nan is right about the shape of what's coming: hundreds of billions in...

31 Touko 6min

“My disagreements with CEA’s approach to stewarding EA” by hbesceli

“My disagreements with CEA’s approach to stewarding EA” by hbesceli

[Cross posted from my substack] In their EA Forum post last year, CEA described their ‘principles-first approach to stewardship of the EA community’. I'm a big fan of principles-first stewardship in ...

29 Touko 27min

“Donating 80% While It Still Counts” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

“Donating 80% While It Still Counts” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Julia and I had been giving half since 2014, but in 2025 we drew on our savings to donate 81%. It looks to us like we're in a critical window for keeping the introduction of very powerful AI systems f...

27 Touko 11min

“Why now might be the best time ever to start an animal charity” by Aidan Alexander, Aaron Boddy🔸, Ambitious Impact

“Why now might be the best time ever to start an animal charity” by Aidan Alexander, Aaron Boddy🔸, Ambitious Impact

TL;DR: AIM is running its first incubation round focused exclusively on animal welfare, in partnership with Aaron Boddy (co-founder of Shrimp Welfare Project). It'll run in early 2027, and we’re on th...

26 Touko 7min

“Announcing the Rethink Priorities Cross-Cause Fund” by Rethink Priorities

“Announcing the Rethink Priorities Cross-Cause Fund” by Rethink Priorities

TL;DR Today, based on our multi-year prioritization research, we launch the Rethink Priorities Cross-Cause Fund (CCF). The fund pools donors’ contributions and allocates them to high-impact giving fun...

22 Touko 33min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
seitseman
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
i-dont-like-mondays
sita
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
kaksi-aitia
hupiklubi
mamma-mia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
ihme-ja-kumma
kolme-kaannekohtaa
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
rss-haudattu
meidan-pitais-puhua
aikalisa
mystista
uutiscast