Note that decreasing your own happiness in tune with the perceived sadness of the world without that decrease in happiness resulting in some actions increasing the world happiness is anti-utilitarian. The whole point of the “grim-o-meter” connected to the state of the world, rather than to “local occasions” is to spur one into action on the world scale. If that casual arrow is not under your control, or is maxed out, say, by giving what you can to an EA charity, feeding the world’s sadness into your own makes things worse for everyone, and decreases average happiness for no good reason...
Note that decreasing your own happiness in tune with the perceived sadness of the world without that decrease in happiness resulting in some actions increasing the world happiness is anti-utilitarian. The whole point of the “grim-o-meter” connected to the state of the world, rather than to “local occasions” is to spur one into action on the world scale. If that casual arrow is not under your control, or is maxed out, say, by giving what you can to an EA charity, feeding the world’s sadness into your own makes things worse for everyone, and decreases average happiness for no good reason...