I give 5% of my income, which will go to 10% once I reach financial security (defined as holding a job for six months and lack of terrifying immediate prospects). That's "all money going in", not just taxable income. If I acquire money illegitimately (finding it with no obvious owner, borrowing it and the lender not wanting it back), it all goes to charity. I try to be frugal, save for investments (nice shoes help get raises), but fail miserably. I donate once a year, for practical reasons.

Same here. I donate 10%, save 10% for emergencies. I donate immediately each month so I don't even get the temptation to use the money otherwise. I'm a starving undergrad as well, so those numbers might go up later.

I chose 10% for charity because the average donation seems to be about 3-4% of income (quick google confirmation) and I won't let those bastards be more charitable than me.

Selfish motives are fine, but that's probably a typical psyche fallacy.

Don't ignore warm fuzzies.

Cryonics aren't available in Israel. And I'm pretty sure they won't be, because our government enforces religious observances at time of death.

The most practical course for me might be to figure out myself that I was dying soon and fly to the US while I was alive, and get cryopreserved there. I don't know if this is legally possible for a non-US resident, or if it is economically feasible for someone already sick and uninsured. I'll have to find out. I don't have much hope of finding a way, though.

I give 5% of my income, which will go to 10% once I reach financial security

These are very round numbers and so, on the outside view, I suspect they are completely arbitrary. How did you choose them?

financial security (defined as holding a job for six months and lack of terrifying immediate prospects).

I suggest a different definition. Having your finances in order, and having a net worth of at least n years worth of income. I read n=0,5 a lot, but feel more comfortable with n >3 or more depending on your distance to retirement.

This would be good to know if true. Can we get a second opinion on this, preferably from someone with domain knowledge of medicine?

There was talk on another thread about members sharing their expertise so this is my attempt to do this even tho I'm probably too late to the party:

What this book cover tells me, no screams at me, is that this self-published author is above listening to advice of others or accepting offers of help. This probably means collaboration is off the table, too. They like to work in their own self-absorbed bubble of "genius" and much too readily pass off or ignore other's work or data that doesn't fit their own working narrative. Professional standards don't apply to them.

Alternative interpretation is that the book is meant to look this way because it is targeted to people that don't regularly read books and are doing so only because they are in a desperate situation.

In donating one usually does not give out too much of the income. Figures like 10% get used, and do not hurt the donor.

They very much do hurt the donor. The hurt of donating incorrectly is exactly the negative of the benefit of donating correctly.

Don't think of it as spending 10% of my income, which I can live without. Think of it as spending 10% of my influence on my probability of not dying. I'm not looking for a charity to give to so I can feel better. I want to really actually increase my chances of survival as a result.

I currently do not donate to any causes due to a lack of income.

That usually leads to repeating "I can't this year, but next year". If you get money from any source at all, it may be a good idea to donate some of it. Now, if someone pays for your needs but doesn't give you any money directly, that won't work - but it's much rarer.

I would expect this to be at -1 or -2 ; I'm curious as to why this was downvoted so much, given that the author seems to be stating his views sincerely.

For clarification, the parent is at -4 as I post.

I don't do selfishness. Partially this is because I don't believe in personal identity, partially because I feel like there's no fundamental difference between me and anyone else, and partially because it doesn't make sense to me intuitively. As such, I try to help myself as much as is necessary to help people in general.

I agree with you about personal identity but I don't think this ontological fact implies that people have no reason to behave in ways we call 'selfish'. A person's seemingly irrational concern for 'themselves' can be regarded as a proxy for concern about the various projects that person is involved in, which would go awry in their absence.

(However, I suspect this is only a small ingredient of the psychological explanation for why people behave 'selfishly', and to the extent that other factors are involved, they are non-rational. But let's put this in perspective - the decision to digest or throw up your stomach contents is also non-rational. For the most part the 'decisions' made would seem 'sensible' to an outside observer. However, when your body is determined to make the 'wrong' decision one can't (always) override it with free will alone. (It certainly doesn't make sense to try to 'talk your stomach round', or 'punish' it if it chooses the wrong action.) Similarly, it's to be expected that a person who shares our view about the non-existence of identity will continue to act selfishly for hidden reasons, even when this has nothing to do with 'advancing their projects'.)

It's only when we start talking about cryonics, teleportation and cloning that the hidden absurdity of 'selfhood' comes to light.