“Taking ethics seriously, and enjoying the process” by NHK

“Taking ethics seriously, and enjoying the process” by NHK

Here's a talk I gave at an EA university group organizers’ retreat recently, which I've been strongly encouraged to share on the forum. I'd like to make it clear I don't recommend everything discussed in this talk (one example in particular which hopefully will be self-evident), but I do think serious shifts in how EA community members engage with ethics and effective altruism could be quite beneficial for the world.

My first big shift (deciding to take ethics much more seriously) resulted from reading Strangers Drowning, and the second (learning to enjoy the process much more) from getting introduced to Rob Burbea's talks on meditation and ethics. I cover my favorite excerpts from both in this talk.

Part 1: Taking ethics seriously

To set context for this talk, I want to go through an Our World in Data style birds-eye view of how things are trending across key issues often discussed in EA. This is to help get better intuitions for questions like “How well will the future go by default?” and “Is the world on track to eventually solve the most pressing problems?” - which can inform high-level strategy questions like “Should we generally be [...]



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Outline:

(00:51) Part 1: Taking ethics seriously

(03:32) Incentive shifts and moral progress

(04:13) What is incentivized by society?

(05:57) Heroic Responsibility

(10:19) Excerpts from Strangers drowning

(13:25) Opening our eyes to what is unbearable

(16:56) Increasing effectiveness vs. increasing altruism

(19:09) Cognitive dissonance

(20:16) Paragons of moral courage

(22:12) The monk who set himself on fire to protect Buddhism, and didn't flinch

(26:35) What do I most deeply want to honor in this life?

(28:31) Moral Courage and defending EA

(30:43) Acknowledging opportunity cost and grappling with guilt

(32:22) Part 2: Enjoying the process

(32:27) Celebrating what's really beautiful - what our hearts care about

(40:57) Enjoying effective altruism

(43:32) Training our minds to cultivate the qualities we endorse

(45:43) Meditation isn't a silver bullet

(51:23) The timeless words of MLK

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First published:
October 4th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gWyvAQztk75xQvRxD/taking-ethics-seriously-and-enjoying-the-process

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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