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Stubborn Attachments by @tylercowen IS OUT(!) This book finally knocked loose, with minimal pain, an ever-wiggling concern that Effective Altruism may only be part of the grand human story (though a critical one). https://smile.amazon.com/Stubborn-Attachments-Prosperous-Responsible-Individuals/dp/1732265135/ …
EA is essentially about redistribution. It's very easy to find oneself (& everyone around) falling into well-worn political grooves at the mention of that word, often coalescing in a pit fight between that & The Economy, with "fairness" the conceptual gun nobody can keep hold of
Attachments argues that much of our "selfish" behavior contributes to economic growth & pro-growth norms, which ultimately make us better off in aggregate. But wise redistribution also does this, & insofar as we can make the world a greater cornucopia by moving money, we should!
IMO, you can read out of this a very nice personal philosophy — one where you try to live a productive life, contributing ideas & labor as you can, & giving to others who are trying to do the same but whose circumstances make an additional dollar more useful to them than to you.
It's hard to pin it down exactly, but... Attachments is really not about limiting your sense of obligation to others, but to widening the scope of that obligation (to, for example, people living many hundreds of years from now) & serving that obligation through high productivity.
It’s difficult to appreciate the value of human lives which won’t be lived for many hundreds of years. Likewise, the value of lives already lived — lived without the gifts of growth even many of the poor among us can access: clean running water, heating/lighting, refrigerationpic.twitter.com/xTADR882d9
Yes... this is a repeating theme for me, strangely converging across a few recent rabbit holes. What makes the world richer? Why does wealth compound? Ideas, which can be forgotten but not consumed away. When you get a good one, you usually get to keep it!https://twitter.com/DavidDeutschOxf/status/1052678945248878598 …
IMO, the moral isn't to grind yourself down either for the poorest (a potential failure mode for EAs) or for all civilization (a potential failure mode for the reader, perhaps). Maybe it's "find the awe in a *grand human tradition* & try to find your place in furthering it."
You could do worse than to spend your entire life in pursuit of good ideas to serve, either by promoting/spreading them OR by extending/revising them OR by executing on them. There are many paths to the thinker priesthood, and it needs youhttps://twitter.com/webdevMason/status/1047498394447429633 …
Getting *really* tangential now, the book + this interview with @tylercowen & @robertwiblin convinced me today to make a real go at quitting alcohol. (Today, coincidentally, marks 6 weeks without nicotine!)https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/tyler-cowen-stubborn-attachments/ …
With regard to the second tweet in this thread, @juliagalef and @robertwiblin disagree with my claim that EA is "essentially about" redistribution. I suspect most EAs do consider redistribution essential to EA's philosophical core, but I leave it to youhttps://twitter.com/robertwiblin/status/1052715779936776193 …
I'm curious why you frame EA as about redistribution? I see that theme in parts of the movement (e.g. GWWC pledge, GiveWell), but other parts such as OpenPhil/X-Risk/"rationality" don't.
Also GiveWell stuff plausibility increases econ growth in the countries the money goes to, I would guess it would be a better bet than trying to influence richer countries economies
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