I'm a moral constructivist. I think it's okay to put more effort into caring about your children than to caring about people elsewhere in the world or in other times that you don't know and have never met. This is where effective altruism sort of gets into trouble. There are people who take it so seriously that they become miserable. We can all work to make everyone better off. That's not a zero-sum game. And we should try to do both as well as we can.
Welcome to the December 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number — based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good — and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!
Remember that I take a holiday break at the end of the year, so the next AMA will be at the beginning of February.
Support Mindscape on Patreon.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.