Comments
Effective Altruism and Essentialism
I aim to draw a connection between Effective Altruism and the book "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" by Greg McKeown, which, in my view, illuminates aspects of EA. I'm particularly interested in addressing the fallacies attributed to what the author terms a nonessentialist - or perhaps, a non-EA. Of these fallacies, the third one appears to me to be the most significant:
The Fallacy of 'I Have To': This is like when you're faced with a string of emails in your inbox. Nonessentialists may feel compelled to respond to every single email because they feel they 'have to.' They might perceive each email as an obligation. An Essentialist, on the other hand, recognizes that they have the choice of how to respond. They can choose to only answer the emails that are truly important, delegate others, or even ignore those that are not critical.
The Fallacy of 'It's All Important': Consider the case where you're tasked with organizing an event. A Nonessentialist might get caught up in the minutiae: choosing the color of the decorations, the design of the invitations, the type of cutlery, etc. An Essentialist, however, would focus on the tasks that have the biggest impact on the event's success, such as securing a good location, hiring a reliable caterer, and creating an engaging program.
The Fallacy of 'I Can Do Both': A significant concept in Essentialism is understanding that life is about trade-offs. The Nonessentialist operates under the illusion that they can and should do it all. However, acknowledging the existence of trade-offs empowers us to make strategic decisions about where to allocate our time and resources. It reminds us that choosing to do one thing often means saying no to another.
Invited to two overlapping conferences, a Nonessentialist tries to attend both, believing they can make the most of both opportunities. They may try to split their time, attention, and energy, resulting in mediocre participation in both events. An Essentialist would recognize the trade-off: attending one conference means not fully participating in the other.
In summary, I believe that among other things, the power of Effective Altruism lies in adopting these three attitudes.
