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JonahSinick comments on How valuable is volunteering? - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: JonahSinick 29 March 2014 09:55PM

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Comment author: JonahSinick 01 April 2014 09:20:02PM 0 points [-]

Then you should definitely mention that, so the reader knows to expect the one-sidedness upfront.

Will do

Yes, but you advising people to donate to a nonprofit and someone "fundraising for a nonprofit" is essentially the same activity. You do it because it can be net positive, but then you criticize someone else doing it because "it can hurt other nonprofits", without mentioning the net positive thing in that case.

I was mentioning it as an offsetting effect. Whether or not it's net positive is highly contingent on the relative quality of the charity that's fundraised for. If there were a fixed supply of charitable funds available then fundraising for the charities with below average marginal cost-effectiveness would be net negative.

P.S. Since I probably came off as curmudgeony, just wanted to mention that I think Cogito Mentoring is a promising endeavor and some of your articles have been great; don't take my brisk criticism of this one as hostile or peeved.

Thanks :-)