Shortforms

FRUGALITY DID NOT REDUCE MY PRODUCTIVITY BUT MADE MY SOCIAL LIFE HARDER In the early years of my EA journey, I tried to live on a small budget so I could donate more. I learned that I could be productive on a small budget. There were times I worked on an old laptop. Some actions might have taken a few seconds longer, and I did not have much screen space. It was fine. What matters most about productivity is to do the right things, not to do the things slightly faster. I exercise to keep my mind fresh. I don't go to the gym or take sports classes. I just do a bodyweight workout at home. Completely free. I also cook my own meals. I can only spend so many hours working behind a computer screen. Ordering food delivery or buying pre-prepared food does not save me time. The biggest problem with frugality is socializing. To meet people, I need to travel and participate in the activities that they do. Sometimes it may be better to not be too frugal. For example, my team works in the office one day per week. We have lunch in a restaurant - which is quite expensive where I live. When I joined the team, I brought my own food and ate it alone in the office. I felt unhappy about this. After a while, I decided to join and spend a lot of money on the "unnecessary luxury" of not socially excluding myself.

Published: Who gives? Characteristics of those who have taken the Giving What We Can pledge [https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12842] The paper I worked on with Matti Wilks for my thesis was published! Lizka successfully did her job and convinced me to share it on the forum.  I'm sharing this here, but I probably won't engage with it (or comments about it) too seriously as a heads up --- this was a project I worked on a few years ago and it's not super relevant to me anymore.

WELCOME TO THE EFFECTIVE GIVING SUBFORUM! This is a dedicated space for discussions about effective giving.  Get involved: * ❤️  Donate via Giving What We Can [https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/giving-season] * Join the discussion * Share where you're donating [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LNbzDCgCH2py3cnJv/where-are-you-donating-this-year-and-why-open-thread] this giving season — and why! * Start a new thread in this subforum[1] * Ask questions about donation decisions * Discuss strategic considerations about giving * Explore other opportunities for donating or raising money * Explore updated giving recommendations from GiveWell [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NeK9XYY2mDsH5bJdD/our-recommendations-for-giving-in-2022], Animal Charity Evaluators [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cGn5HrDKdCkaf3REy/announcing-our-2022-charity-recommendations], Giving What We Can [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ebN8eB7DoN2Frd7Wy/announcing-gwwc-s-new-giving-recommendations], and Happier Lives Institute [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uY5SwjHTXgTaWC85f/don-t-just-give-well-give-wellbys-hli-s-2022-charity] * Book an effective giving talk [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cNHbgp2MsGRZBAqjG/book-a-corporate-event-for-giving-season] at your workplace * Give the Forum team feedback about this beta subforum * Reach us at forum@centreforeffectivealtruism.org [forum@centreforeffectivealtruism.org]  or comment on this post [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fLYiwuxyFF9q3pe6B/effective-giving-subforum-and-other-updates-bonus-forum]. 1. ^ Threads can be casual! This will only appear in this subforum or for people who've joined the subforum. 

I thought we could do a thread for Giving What We Can pledgers and lessons learnt or insights since pledging!  I'll go first: I was actually really worried about how donating 10% would feel, as well as it's impact on my finances - but actually it's made me much less stressed about money - to know I can still have a great standard of living with 10% less. It's actually changed the way I see money and finances and has helped me think about how I can increase my giving in future years.

Two houses (the forum and EA twitter), both alike in dignity, are being brought together in a time of great need. We're at $35,980 on our fundraiser [https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/fundraisers/ea-meme-2022] for GiveWell and ACE and there are only 3 days left, please donate! Especially if you have $44,020 laying around and you want to see Dustin on the 80k podcast disclaimer: *long discussion of counterfactualness and tax implications*

I've said before and I'll say again that I'd love a GWWC conference just about giving 10%

Pre-commitent: I will reply on this thread with where I decide to donate by New Years Day.  I’m planning to meet up with a friend and decide where to give my donations on New Years Eve. I often find I put my giving off so I'm using this post as a commitment device. 1. If anyone wants to join me, feel free to comment with the date you plan to donate by. 2. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to structure your thinking on where to donate? I’m planning to spend a couple of hours on this with a friend.

I'm pretty sympathetic to patient philanthropy for longtermist causes that aren't to do with nearterm Xrisks, because my view is that as long as we preserve option value for the future, they will likely be better placed to use the resources than we are, so we should just save the pool for them to use as they see fit. The example I usually give when explaining my position is thinking about polio and the iron lung. Say someone in the 1910s wanted to invest in significant iron lung production facilities to make sure polio would never be a problem in the future. 20 years later, the polio vaccine is created and all this investment is obsolete. If that money was saved it could perhaps be used to speed up the distribution of polio vaccines and help eradicate polio etc. One uncertainty I have about this though, is that I don't know how to implement this in practice (what % to give later vs give now? How do I know when I should use this pool?). Curious about any takes!