All of Fergus's Comments + Replies
+1 Regarding extending the principle of charity towards HLI. Anecdotally it seems very common for initial CEA estimates to be revised down as the analysis is critiqued. I think HLI has done an exceptional job at being transparent and open regarding their methodology and the source of disagreements e.g. see Joel's comment outlining the sources of disagreement between HLI and GiveWell, which I thought were really exceptional (https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/h5sJepiwGZLbK476N/assessment-of-happier-lives-institute-s-cost-effectiveness?commentId=LqFS5...
There's a guy in my (Econ) PhD programme with a working paper relevant to this - I can put you in touch with him if you life: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.10305.pdf
This might not be well-founded at all, and it might well (and could even likely) be the case that higher levels of happiness lead to clearer thinking.
I suppose I was thinking about a bit of a dichotonomy between analytical, focussed attention and expansive awareness (while I appreciate that this is an oversimplication, something like the distinction between 'left-brain thinking' and 'right-brain thinking'). My understanding is that''left-brain thinking' can contribute to anxiety and cause one to be overly critical of oneself, but can also facilitate ...
I definitely agree that it's important to consider facets of a career other than impact, but personally I wouldn't want to use the weighted sum approach. I'd prefer to mostly think more about thresholds and aim to 'satisfice' in most areas other than impact.
It's very important to have boundaries and avoid burnout but if you have a reasonable sense of what level of social standing, income etc. is satisfactory and ensure that any career choice satisfies these conditions I think you can avoid these issues.
The reason I would prefer a satisficing approach for t...
Basic economics classes teach people to make better decisions and to have a better understanding of how markets and the economy works. This is helpful to think about how to get a high paying career, how to run a business and take advantage of economic opportunities. I would imagine that it would be better for an economy to have schools that each economics for these reasons.