[Zolde]

EA is basically Christian charity for people who live in a city that views Christianity as a dirty thing.

It is employed to resolve the cognitive dissonance that highly talented people struggle with, when they realize they could do anything they set their minds to (including making the world a better place), but still want to work as a quant or optimize for ad clicks, because this pays well.

Like Goedel stated "most religions are bad, but religion is not", most people vocally identifying with EA are bad, but EA is not. To judge EA by the character flaws of prominent people like SBF, is like judging Christianity for Jim Jones's massacre. EA is, in essence, about effectively allocating charity. Noble and good-hearted.

Surely, grifters and frauds would abuse EA to virtue signal or trick venture capitalists into thinking their investment also builds wells in Africa. That should reflect badly on them. Elizabeth Holmes got so far, in part, because venture capitalists were attracted to her due to her being a young female. Merely Goodhart's Law in progress, not young female entrepreneurs being bad or without merit.

[dale_glass]

> EA is basically Christian charity for people who live in a city that views Christianity as a dirty thing.

I don't see it. They're pretty much opposite approaches.

Christianity is deontological and focused on God. Christianity says that's what is important is following the rules, and the rules exist to make God happy, and that outcomes are irrelevant.

EA is an utilitarian frame work, and focused on the real world. Utilitarianism says what is important is obtaining utility, and that outcomes are the ultimate measure of goodness.

The main difference is that from an utilitarian standpoint, Christian charity only ever works by accident. From its point of view what's important is that you do it. The how and why, and what happens as a result is unimportant. So giving huge amounts of money to a megachurch for the pastor's Ferrari while the poor starve is perfectly fine, because you're not doing it for the poor people, you're doing it for God, and you did what was asked of you.

[23B1]

I think you missed the point of the Godel quote, though.

[mathgradthrow]

Religion is whatever its adherents tend to believe.

Without a consistent formal system of inference, every moral proposition and its negation are consequences of the religion, so it is now capable of providing moral justification of any behavior. There is a powerful evolutionary incentive for religions to provide simple "justifications" for behaving selfishly, while disguising the inconsistency of the systems they put forth.

Effective altruism is particularly guilty, i think.

[elzbardico]

EA is basically Rotary Club for rich and cool millenials.