JonahSinick comments on Earning to Give vs. Altruistic Career Choice Revisited - Less Wrong

34 Post author: JonahSinick 02 June 2013 02:55AM

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Comment author: JonahSinick 28 May 2013 09:16:45PM *  2 points [-]

I'm not at all convinced, though, in the conclusion that earning to give is reasonably likely to have less impact.

I agree that I didn't make a tight argument: what my post offers is a bunch of counterarguments against the "earning to give" position, together with an expression of my intuitions, supported with limited empirical data. I do have a fair amount (~80%) of confidence in my intuition, but it's difficult to explicate why.

Part of the reason I might feel this way is I've been earning-to-give at a trading firm, partly because I'm unsure of my value-add through more direct means. I'm fascinated by the idea of a more direct career, but I'm skeptical of the magnitude of my potential value-add, especially with my donations from trading as a baseline for comparison. I'd be interested to learn more about the types of things you think I should be considering (can provide more information in this vein as of course it will be different depending on my skillset).

Given that you've proven yourself at a trading firm and not in other contexts, your (expected) comparative advantage may be in earning to give.

I'd be happy to discuss these things more: you can email me at jsinick (at) gmail (dot) com.

Comment author: MaxwellFritz 28 May 2013 09:27:32PM *  1 point [-]

I think you probably could write a similar collection of arguments against your own position with the same or greater strength. I'm surprised at the 80% number - that's pretty confident. Then again, it's a little strange to boil it down to a number like that - as you allude to, it's going to vary considerably based on who the person is, and different people likely mean different things when they talk about the population of people who should be considering earning-to-give over direct careers. I think it's clear there are people who will have more impact in each category, and we're debating where the line is and what sort of people belong in what group.

I'll shoot you an email - thanks for that.

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