If the increase from optimizing income is large enough, quite a bit of backsliding can occur while donations increase.
If having regular social relationships at work helps you make more money (e.g. playing golf with the boss) then “avoid your coworkers” might be bad advice for an aspiring philanthropist. Likewise, if your income will suffer from not fitting in, and if fitting in requires some amount of conspicuous consumption (expensive suits or whatever), then there isn’t really a trade-off here.
EDIT: The caution against being “Penny-wise and pound foolish” should apply to moral as well as financial matters.
“‘avoid your coworkers’ might be bad advice for an aspiring philanthropist.”
I don’t think you should avoid your coworkers. That’s definitely bad advice. Not only are there the potential advantages you describe, they’re probably really interesting people! I’m saying you should try to have a lot of different influences, and not let your coworkers form too much of your social circle.
(Which is also a good strategy given that you may may lose your job, and don’t want to lose all your friends with it.)
If the increase from optimizing income is large enough, quite a bit of backsliding can occur while donations increase.
If having regular social relationships at work helps you make more money (e.g. playing golf with the boss) then “avoid your coworkers” might be bad advice for an aspiring philanthropist. Likewise, if your income will suffer from not fitting in, and if fitting in requires some amount of conspicuous consumption (expensive suits or whatever), then there isn’t really a trade-off here.
EDIT: The caution against being “Penny-wise and pound foolish” should apply to moral as well as financial matters.
“‘avoid your coworkers’ might be bad advice for an aspiring philanthropist.”
I don’t think you should avoid your coworkers. That’s definitely bad advice. Not only are there the potential advantages you describe, they’re probably really interesting people! I’m saying you should try to have a lot of different influences, and not let your coworkers form too much of your social circle.
(Which is also a good strategy given that you may may lose your job, and don’t want to lose all your friends with it.)