Less Wrong is a self selected group that’s probably non representative of the general population in several ways. So as a quick test of the above post as it applies to this group:
My 2012 Donations
Against Malaria 1,000
Political Causes 1,000
Disease research of significance to people I know (eg someone says their aunt died of X and asks friends to donate something to X research in her memory) 200
Free Stuff I’d be willing to pay for (eg Wikipedia) 150
Institutions helpful to me when I was younger ( eg high school and college) 125
Having seen someone publicize their donations:
Do you feel more or less inclined to make donations than you did previously?
Do you feel more or less inclined to publicize donations than you did previously?
Are you going to publicize your donations in this thread?
Prediction: if many people post, my total (excluding political donations will be close to the median) low confidence
Do you feel more or less inclined to make donations than you did previously?
No, but other LW related things (givewell, giving what we can) made me more inclined to make donations. The story of Zell Kravinsky made me more inclined to do so as well. Also, the overall discussion (not specifically your comment) causes the “charity” meme to slightly grow in size within my mind.
Are you going to publicize your donations in this thread?
I would publicize my donations if I had made any. By the logic of the main post, am I doing a dis-service to norm creation by admitting to not donating?
Being a student, my net worth generally fluctuates around zero and would go negative without parental support. Which isn’t an excuse at all—I could be more frugal and ask my parents to donate the difference...but for some reason it is more intuitive to first become self sufficient and then donate, rather than use methods to convince parents to donate what they might have spent on me.
I like the Giving What We Can norm of “give 10% of income when you have it and 1% of your spending money otherwise”. That’s 1% of whatever you have for eating out, going to the movies, etc. While 1% is small, it keeps you in the habit of giving, makes you think about where to give, and demonstrates to yourself and others that you’re committed.
I suspect that asking your parents if you could be more frugal and they would donate the difference would just strain your relationship to little gain.
I suspect that asking your parents if you could be more frugal and they would donate the difference would just strain your relationship to little gain.
This is why I never tried it. When choosing which college to go to, I did ask whether going to the vastly cheaper of two options and donating the difference was an option, and was told it wasn’t, and I could tell that similar suggestions along those lines wouldn’t go over well. (In retrospect, it was good they kept me from doing unusual things like that, and that I’m so influenced by social norms—taking beliefs seriously while still a stupid kid in other ways is dangerous.)
Against Malaria — $5500 CFAR — $500 Ada Initiative — $500 Kim Suozzi’s cryonics fund — $250 Local cultural groups (theater, puzzles) — maybe ~$50 total
Less Wrong is a self selected group that’s probably non representative of the general population in several ways. So as a quick test of the above post as it applies to this group:
My 2012 Donations
Against Malaria 1,000
Political Causes 1,000
Disease research of significance to people I know (eg someone says their aunt died of X and asks friends to donate something to X research in her memory) 200
Free Stuff I’d be willing to pay for (eg Wikipedia) 150
Institutions helpful to me when I was younger ( eg high school and college) 125
Having seen someone publicize their donations:
Do you feel more or less inclined to make donations than you did previously?
Do you feel more or less inclined to publicize donations than you did previously?
Are you going to publicize your donations in this thread?
Prediction: if many people post, my total (excluding political donations will be close to the median) low confidence
No, but other LW related things (givewell, giving what we can) made me more inclined to make donations. The story of Zell Kravinsky made me more inclined to do so as well. Also, the overall discussion (not specifically your comment) causes the “charity” meme to slightly grow in size within my mind.
I would publicize my donations if I had made any. By the logic of the main post, am I doing a dis-service to norm creation by admitting to not donating?
Being a student, my net worth generally fluctuates around zero and would go negative without parental support. Which isn’t an excuse at all—I could be more frugal and ask my parents to donate the difference...but for some reason it is more intuitive to first become self sufficient and then donate, rather than use methods to convince parents to donate what they might have spent on me.
I like the Giving What We Can norm of “give 10% of income when you have it and 1% of your spending money otherwise”. That’s 1% of whatever you have for eating out, going to the movies, etc. While 1% is small, it keeps you in the habit of giving, makes you think about where to give, and demonstrates to yourself and others that you’re committed.
I suspect that asking your parents if you could be more frugal and they would donate the difference would just strain your relationship to little gain.
This is why I never tried it. When choosing which college to go to, I did ask whether going to the vastly cheaper of two options and donating the difference was an option, and was told it wasn’t, and I could tell that similar suggestions along those lines wouldn’t go over well. (In retrospect, it was good they kept me from doing unusual things like that, and that I’m so influenced by social norms—taking beliefs seriously while still a stupid kid in other ways is dangerous.)
I’m not sure they would accept that.
Hmm … sure, I’ll go along with this.
2012 donations:
Against Malaria — $5500
CFAR — $500
Ada Initiative — $500
Kim Suozzi’s cryonics fund — $250
Local cultural groups (theater, puzzles) — maybe ~$50 total