I don’t think it’s fair to compare to a “typical example” of normal altruism, because most people who donate do not put much serious thought into what they’re going to do with their money. I think the fair comparison would be to altruists who are non-EAs but put comparable amounts of thought into what they do. At that point it’s not clear to me that EAs are doing better (especially if we look at the reference class of people who are willing to devote their entire career to a cause).
Of course, I agree that it would be good if as a society we shifted the cultural default for how to donate to be something more effective (e.g. “known to be effective charity” instead of “random reasonable-looking domestic charity”). This is one good thing that I see the EA movement accomplishing and hope that it will continue to accomplish.
OK, I see where you’re coming from, and you have a good point (though you might want to consider adjusting the phrasing of the claim in your original post, which as I said came across as very strong).
I don’t think it’s fair to compare to a “typical example” of normal altruism, because most people who donate do not put much serious thought into what they’re going to do with their money. I think the fair comparison would be to altruists who are non-EAs but put comparable amounts of thought into what they do. At that point it’s not clear to me that EAs are doing better (especially if we look at the reference class of people who are willing to devote their entire career to a cause).
Of course, I agree that it would be good if as a society we shifted the cultural default for how to donate to be something more effective (e.g. “known to be effective charity” instead of “random reasonable-looking domestic charity”). This is one good thing that I see the EA movement accomplishing and hope that it will continue to accomplish.
OK, I see where you’re coming from, and you have a good point (though you might want to consider adjusting the phrasing of the claim in your original post, which as I said came across as very strong).