Ask HN: Do you follow effective altruism? - temp129038
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muzani
I think most of the people who visit HN would be the type to optimize
altruism.

It's not just impact though. There are sites which try to research the most
cost-effective causes.

But that feels mechanical and hurts the "feel good" effect. While you can
probably feel good by donating something closer to home that has a 70:1 effect
compared to a 101:1 effect, for example.

There's also some other selfish factors to optimize for like tax breaks and
divine favor.

And sometimes it's more effective to work for a good job as compared to taking
a high paying 'evil' job and then donating that money.

But yeah, I try to systematically do all of the above. As far as I'm concerned
it doesn't matter how long I live or how much money I make, only how much
benefit I contribute to the world in the end.

