Thank you for a wonderful text and that you mentioned how you cultivate that people are real! I will use some of the resources for my students in global health. I use Out of Eden Walk for cultivating that people are real. It is about a journalist at National Geographic who walk across the world. I hope you like it!

In 2016,[1] I wrote the following: > Why do I give? > I’ve lived a very fortunate life. I was born into a well-off American family, the son of two parents with college degrees. I attended a famous university. I didn’t deserve any of this; if I’d been born somewhere else, my life would have gone very differently. I give because I’d like to share the results of my luck with the less fortunate. > > I also give because I think that human happiness is the best thing in the world (in all its forms: love, excitement, satisfaction…). I already have a good, satisfying life, so I don’t need to buy more happiness. Instead, I can use money to help a lot of other people live happier lives. This strikes me as a fantastic opportunity. When Giving What We Can asked me to write about my giving, I thought it would be easy — I still believe in everything up there. But after nine years spent living and working in the EA community, I've had a few more thoughts about the question.[2] Humans make my life worth living A few hours ago, I rewatched (for the 10th time) a snippet of one of my favorite YouTube videos: the 2024 Pokemon Cypher Contest, which selects one talented entrant to join a group of Pokemon-loving "anime rappers" on a group video/album. Here's what it took for this video to exist: * Someone had to invent computers (between Babbage and Turing, I'll say England) * Someone else had to invent video games (let's say Pong, ergo the United States) * Then someone had to invent Pokemon (Japan!) * Also, someone had to invent rap (too many places to count — but it seems like Jamaica and Barbados get a lot of credit for dub music, Grandmaster Flash, etc.) * Someone had to rap about Pokemon for long enough to collect an audience and gather like-minded musicians (Shofu, who I believe has Nigerian roots) * Those like-minded musicians had to form a successful collective. I don't know their family history, but evidence suggests that their origin stories span the globe: * P

Tl;dr Take a pledge. Just do it. 1% for 1 year. Calculate what that would mean for you right now. What do you have to lose? Take a pledge now Why I donate I still remember. I was seventeen when a friend sent me Peter Singer’s TED talk. I watched it and the lens through which I saw the world was changed forever. For the first time, I understood the sheer, almost absurd privilege of what it means to be “normal” in a high-income country. My parents were part-time primary school teachers. We were never “well off”. But globally we were among the richest people on Earth. That realisation was both humbling and slightly disorienting. Not because we had done anything wrong, but because so much of life’s lottery is exactly that: a lottery. The second thing I learned that day was something even more empowering: our donations can do an enormous amount of good. Not hypothetically, not vaguely, but measurably. This combination: privilege + tractable impact was so striking to me. I haven’t been able to forget it. That day, I took the 🔸10% Pledge. At the time, I had no real income. I was a student. So I donated £10 a month (1% of my spending money) to the Against Malaria Foundation. It felt tiny. It also felt empowering (genuinely). Giving became a habit before I even had a salary. Later, when I started earning and started giving 10%, it was astonishingly easy. I had never got used to that last 10%, so I never missed it. Over the years, giving has become one of the things I value most about how I live my life. It’s shaped my identity, my career, and my sense of purpose. I’m proud of it not because it makes me “a good person” (that’s not how I see it) but because it’s a part of my life where I can trace unambiguous positive impact from a simple, consistent action. Here’s what my donations have done so far: * Protected around 100 families from malaria * Prevented roughly 700 tonnes of CO₂e (about 700 transatlantic flights’ worth) * Doubled the annual income of 12 famil

Executive summary: The author argues that, given the moral weight of conscious experience and the role of luck in determining life circumstances, a voluntary simplicity pledge tied to the world’s average income lets them meet their ethical duties while still maintaining a balanced and meaningful life. Key points: 1. The author claims conscious moments have intrinsic importance and that ignoring others’ suffering amounts to endorsing harmful systems. 2. The author argues most advantages and disadvantages in life stem from luck, so they do not view their own wealth as morally deserved. 3. The author states that effective donations can do large amounts of good, citing estimates of $3,000 to $5,500 per life saved and 126,000 cage-free years for chickens per equivalent spending. 4. The author describes voluntary simplicity research, citing Hook et al. (2021) as finding a consistent positive relationship between voluntary simplicity and well-being. 5. The author explains they set their salary to roughly the world’s average income adjusted for London (£26,400 in 2025) and donate earnings above that. 6. The author reports that living this way feels non-sacrificial, supports long-term financial security, and aligns their actions with their values while recognizing others’ differing circumstances.     This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.