stop trying to be a "good person" - by Celeste 🌱

the bitter lesson of consequentialism.

[epistemic status - I am quite confident all of this is true1 and every rebuttal I can think of is handled in a footnote] UPDATED epistemic status: Excellent critcism in the comments, lots of use of hyperbole and non-arguments in the article. I also presuppose utilitarianism. epistemic status is neurondumpy frustration at best.2 This post was sparked after I met someone who earns a lot of money, and donates around ~$200K+ every year to effective animal charities. One of my friends got really annoyed with me after I called her “probably the most ethical person I know”. But today I want to…

saved by

• Sudarsh K
• Catherine Xu

related reading

• Notes on Effective Altruismmichaelnotebook.com
• ⚡️ Towards Ineffective Altruismreboothq.substack.com
• Half-assing it with everything you've gotmindingourway.com
• You have a Moral Obligation to get Rich and Powerfulthelimitsofmylanguage.substack.com
• Effective altruism in the garden of ends — EA Forumforum.effectivealtruism.org
• Mini Blog Post 8: What altruism means to me - Neel Nandaneelnanda.io
• Why I am not an effective altruist - by Erik Hoeltheintrinsicperspective.com
• Your Goal Isn’t Really to Get a Jobthatvastvariety.substack.com
• The Threat Response to Effective Altruismsubstack.com
• I graduated from Effective Altruismsubstack.com
• Changing the world for the worse — LessWronglesswrong.com
• Why I am not an effective altruisterikhoel.substack.com