Balancing Rationality with Emotional Fulfillment in Giving

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The speaker has chosen to optimize for results based on advice and research and views the pursuit of emotional fulfillment as an additional project. They have committed to giving 10% of pre-tax dollars to effective charities but also give more to individuals with tragic stories, even if it wouldn't survive an effective altruism analysis. This has made it more rewarding for them. They believe it's a noble form of greed to be satisfied by helping in specific ways outside of optimized results. The speaker emphasizes that intentions matter, as they shape our interactions and relationships with others.

Sam Harris speaks with Chris Anderson about generosity in the age of the Internet. They talk about the new spirit of cynicism in tech and finance, the problems with DEI, the Coleman Hughes controversy at TED, the norm of color blindness, the science of generosity, the leverage of the Internet, the false opposition between selfishness and selflessness, mixed motives in giving, results vs reward, the importance of intentions, looking for the good in people, digital business models, the economics of TED, TEDx, wealth inequality, the ethics of billionaires, philanthropy at scale, the power of pledges, the arguments of Peter Singer, the Sam Bankman-Fried scandal, problems with Effective Altruism, how to improve our digital lives, and other topics.

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