Lumifer comments on Open thread, Oct. 20 - Oct. 26, 2014 - Less Wrong

9 Post author: MrMind 20 October 2014 08:12AM

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Comment author: Evan_Gaensbauer 24 October 2014 09:33:57AM 3 points [-]

What I was trying to mean was that effective altruism might benefit from those who don't retire, per se, but become financially independent early in life, and can remain so for the remainder of their lives, so that they can spend the rest of their careers volunteering for effective causes and organizations. Thought I can't find the particular blog post right now, I recall Peter Hurford pondering that if he concluded doing direct work in effective altruism was the path for him, instead of earning to give, he might keep working a high-paying job for sometime regardless. That way, he could gain valuable experience, and use the money he earns to eventually become financially independent, i.e., 'retire early'. Then, when he is age forty or something, he can do valuable work as a non-profit manager or researcher or personal assistant for free.

I can't recall if he's the only person who has considered this career model, but maybe some should take a closer look at it. This is how early retirement beyond frugal living habits might benefit effective altruism.

Comment author: Lumifer 24 October 2014 03:51:12PM 5 points [-]

become financially independent early in life, and can remain so for the remainder of their lives, so that they can spend the rest of their careers volunteering for effective causes and organizations.

The problem is that you have to show this is better than just giving all your "excess" money to the effective causes right away and continuing to work in the normal manner.

Comment author: Evan_Gaensbauer 25 October 2014 05:43:20AM 2 points [-]

Well, nobody from within effective altruism has written much up about this yet. It's not something I'm considering doing soon. Until someone does, I doubt others will think about it, so it's a non-issue. If some take this consideration for their careers seriously, then that's a problem they'll need to assess, hopefully publicly so feedback can be given. At any rate, you make a good point, so I won't go around encouraging people to do this willy-nilly, or something.

Comment author: Baisius 02 November 2014 08:42:39PM -1 points [-]

This seems like a case of privileging the hypothesis. Why should we have to show that early retirement + EA volunteering is superior to working a standard job and donating free cash flow, and not the other way around?