I’m planning to save the world by accumulating a large amount of money and donating it to the most effective charity that I can find.
Two reasons why I currently think this path is best for me:
1) I think that my mind is much better suited to accumulating money than directly working on really hard problems. Decision theory just makes my head hurt.
2) If I change my mind about which charity I consider effective, being a donor allows me to immediately act on my updated beliefs without wasting my past learning. Ex: If I became an FAI researcher and then (after I had spent years learning how to be an effective FAI researcher) decided that life-extension technologies were more effective, I would have to study a bunch of new stuff. If I’m donating, I just send the money to a different place. Curious note: The influence of this factor on my final decision is inversely related to my confidence level in my current judgement.
Edit: I may be wrong about #2; the instrumental utility granted from such may be smaller than I am estimating it to be. However, I think that I have enough of a comparative advantage in making money that even if #2 grants me only a small amount of utility, my decision is likely to remain the same.
I wanted to state this before people began to argue about the merits of #2 (if they did so), because it tends to be irritating when you argue against a proposition and you find out after the fact that the person who initially believed the proposition to be true assigned less importance to its truth than you thought.
I would very strongly advise that you donate something while you’re trying to accumulate money. Otherwise I would bet against a generic person in your situation ever following through (Outside View).
I hadn’t considered this one as an argument against the “entrepreneur now, donate later” strategy. It works from the inside view too—I don’t want to expose myself to influences that might make me strongly modify my utility function in the direction of selfishness, and surrounding myself with go-getting business types might do just that.
Speaking of which, I still owe you money. I have personal issues which currently prevent me from making a significant SIAI donation, but I’m trying to strategize my way around them.
Maybe we could set up a donation matching system that, while not as amazing as the ones by the big donors, could add up to something interesting and fruitful. The logistics seem a bit difficult to set up, but I know that I would be willing to match funds with someone in a similar position as myself.
I’m interested. What is it that means people want to pair up, rather than just individually giving as much as they can? If there’s a pool of potential donors who are limited by “akrasia” then yes, that’s a totally awesome idea.
I’ll see if anyone at SIAI is interested and maybe discuss with you how it could be implemented.
I think you’re right, that akrasia would be one of the biggest reasons. There’s also the possibility that there aren’t enough applause lights for giving, and that thus giving to the SIAI just doesn’t feel as good as it should. And since LW doesn’t press my superstimulus buttons the way a video game does, it hurts more to pay for 20 hours of entertainment here than it does to pay for, say, Portal 2, which didn’t even provide 20 hours of fun (but oh what fun...).
I’ve tried to set up donation matching with friends before. Most are just not interested. The one that was willing has recently decided to buy a house and get married, so he can’t play any more. But for a while, I was a part of a superorganism that had twice the donating power as just me alone, and that felt pretty cool.
I’ll start thinking of how it could be implemented, just in case the SIAI is interested.
There’s also the possibility that there aren’t enough applause lights for giving, and that thus giving to the SIAI just doesn’t feel as good as it should.
Until I explicitly asked for it, this was certainly true for me. The Red Cross thanks me and provides gifts or status boosts more than 12 times, in person, on each individual visit to donate blood, sometimes doing so in a public forum. SIAI doesn’t even send an automated email any more.
I find it annoying when the Red Cross calls me, even when it’s just with thanks, but part of why I’ve given blood in the past is that there’s a plaque on the wall in my grandma’s house of a newspaper clipping in which my grandfather is praised for exceeding the (I think) 10-gallon mark of blood donation.
My strategy as explained in this LW comment has accumulated 351k USD in almost 7 years; I’m almost 28 years old. It may not be optimal, and it’s definitely not universally applicable, but I suspect that it would work for many people. Its virtues are that it’s not risky, and (most importantly!) it’s devoid of magic tricks. It just requires hard work (but not that hard) over many years (but not that many).
I’ve been thinking about writing a top-level post (which would be my first) along these lines.
I’m planning to save the world by accumulating a large amount of money and donating it to the most effective charity that I can find.
Two reasons why I currently think this path is best for me:
1) I think that my mind is much better suited to accumulating money than directly working on really hard problems. Decision theory just makes my head hurt.
2) If I change my mind about which charity I consider effective, being a donor allows me to immediately act on my updated beliefs without wasting my past learning. Ex: If I became an FAI researcher and then (after I had spent years learning how to be an effective FAI researcher) decided that life-extension technologies were more effective, I would have to study a bunch of new stuff. If I’m donating, I just send the money to a different place. Curious note: The influence of this factor on my final decision is inversely related to my confidence level in my current judgement.
Edit: I may be wrong about #2; the instrumental utility granted from such may be smaller than I am estimating it to be. However, I think that I have enough of a comparative advantage in making money that even if #2 grants me only a small amount of utility, my decision is likely to remain the same.
I wanted to state this before people began to argue about the merits of #2 (if they did so), because it tends to be irritating when you argue against a proposition and you find out after the fact that the person who initially believed the proposition to be true assigned less importance to its truth than you thought.
I would very strongly advise that you donate something while you’re trying to accumulate money. Otherwise I would bet against a generic person in your situation ever following through (Outside View).
Your statement makes intuitive sense, but do you have any data that you think would be a more persuasive argument?
I hadn’t considered this one as an argument against the “entrepreneur now, donate later” strategy. It works from the inside view too—I don’t want to expose myself to influences that might make me strongly modify my utility function in the direction of selfishness, and surrounding myself with go-getting business types might do just that.
Speaking of which, I still owe you money. I have personal issues which currently prevent me from making a significant SIAI donation, but I’m trying to strategize my way around them.
Maybe we could set up a donation matching system that, while not as amazing as the ones by the big donors, could add up to something interesting and fruitful. The logistics seem a bit difficult to set up, but I know that I would be willing to match funds with someone in a similar position as myself.
I’m interested. What is it that means people want to pair up, rather than just individually giving as much as they can? If there’s a pool of potential donors who are limited by “akrasia” then yes, that’s a totally awesome idea.
I’ll see if anyone at SIAI is interested and maybe discuss with you how it could be implemented.
I think you’re right, that akrasia would be one of the biggest reasons. There’s also the possibility that there aren’t enough applause lights for giving, and that thus giving to the SIAI just doesn’t feel as good as it should. And since LW doesn’t press my superstimulus buttons the way a video game does, it hurts more to pay for 20 hours of entertainment here than it does to pay for, say, Portal 2, which didn’t even provide 20 hours of fun (but oh what fun...).
I’ve tried to set up donation matching with friends before. Most are just not interested. The one that was willing has recently decided to buy a house and get married, so he can’t play any more. But for a while, I was a part of a superorganism that had twice the donating power as just me alone, and that felt pretty cool.
I’ll start thinking of how it could be implemented, just in case the SIAI is interested.
Until I explicitly asked for it, this was certainly true for me. The Red Cross thanks me and provides gifts or status boosts more than 12 times, in person, on each individual visit to donate blood, sometimes doing so in a public forum. SIAI doesn’t even send an automated email any more.
I find it annoying when the Red Cross calls me, even when it’s just with thanks, but part of why I’ve given blood in the past is that there’s a plaque on the wall in my grandma’s house of a newspaper clipping in which my grandfather is praised for exceeding the (I think) 10-gallon mark of blood donation.
Human blood has very low iron content by weight—it is measured in micrograms per deciliter.
I was also disappointed when I learned that the process of extracting the iron is nontrivial.
What do you think is the best strategy to earn money?
I think that it’s opening a business, though I don’t yet know in what industry nor in which country such would be most profitable.
My strategy as explained in this LW comment has accumulated 351k USD in almost 7 years; I’m almost 28 years old. It may not be optimal, and it’s definitely not universally applicable, but I suspect that it would work for many people. Its virtues are that it’s not risky, and (most importantly!) it’s devoid of magic tricks. It just requires hard work (but not that hard) over many years (but not that many).
I’ve been thinking about writing a top-level post (which would be my first) along these lines.
Out of curiosity, what percentage of that amount have you donated? I would encourage you to write this post.
This is my default strategy (I’m getting a degree in Chemical Engineering) if I can’t get a better one to come to fruition.
If you have any additional insights beyond those in your linked comment, a top-level post might be useful.
A blog I follow with a similar life strategy is Get Rich Slowly.