I donate because I love humanity

In 2016,^[1] I wrote the following:

Why do I give?

I’ve lived a very fortunate life. I was born into a well-off American family, the son of two parents with college degrees. I attended a famous university. I didn’t deserve any of this; if I’d been born somewhere else, my life would have gone very differently. I give because I’d like to share the results of my luck with the less fortunate.

I also give because I think that human happiness is the best thing in the world (in all its forms: love, excitement, satisfaction…). I already have a good, satisfying life, so I don’t need to buy more happiness. Instead, I can use money to help a lot of other people live happier lives. This strikes me as a fantastic opportunity.

When Giving What We Can asked me to write about my giving, I thought it would be easy — I still believe in everything up there.

But after nine years spent living and working in the EA community, I've had a few more thoughts about the question.^[2]

Humans make my life worth living

A few hours ago, I rewatched (for the 10th time) a snippet of one of my favorite YouTube videos: the 2024 Pokemon Cypher Contest, which selects one talented entrant to join a group of Pokemon-loving "anime rappers" on a group video/album.

Here's what it took for this video to exist:

• Someone had to invent computers (between Babbage and Turing, I'll say England)
• Someone else had to invent video games (let's say Pong, ergo the United States)
• Then someone had to invent Pokemon (Japan!)
• Also, someone had to invent rap (too many places to count — but it seems like Jamaica and Barbados get a lot of credit for dub music, Grandmaster Flash, etc.)
• Someone had to rap about Pokemon for long enough to collect an audience and gather like-minded musicians (Shofu, who I believe has Nigerian roots)
• Those like-minded musicians had to form a successful collective. I don't know their family history, but evidence suggests that their origin stories span the globe:
  • Pe$o Pete (aka Peter Kamats, an Indian surname)
  • CTC (East Asia)
  • VI Seconds (Africa)
  • Matt Houston (Europe)
• And then they had to hold a contest, which attracted the contestant I was watching: Lime King, the eventual winner, who flew in from Australia to shoot the video.^[3]

Just as one Dorito has more extreme nacho flavor (Mexico) than a peasant would taste in a lifetime, the Pokemon Cypher has more global culture than ~any person born before 1800 could ever experience. And I can watch it whenever I want, thanks to YouTube founders Jawed Karim (Bangladesh/Germany), Steve Chen (Taiwan), and Chad Hurley (Ireland?).

Every place on Earth has contributed many things to the life I now enjoy. I may not know the people who live in those places now, but they are part of the global human story, and as one node in our collective network, I want to help their lives go better. If I save someone's life today, maybe their grandson will write my grandson's favorite song. Maybe their granddaughter will marry my granddaughter. Or maybe none of that will happen, and we'll all just get to keep living in the same story.^[4]

Other people are real

A lot of Twitter discourse around the collapse of USAID seemed to implicitly assume that sick and starving children were either fictional, or unimportant — numbers on spreadsheets, nameless ghosts, whatever. 

But there are real, actual people who need help to stay healthy and safe. And they are living their lives, right now!

It would take me less than 48 hours to visit any of a thousand villages where people are using bednets from the Against Malaria Foundation or vitamin supplements from Helen Keller International. If I went there (and somehow learned the language), I expect I'd meet some really nice people and care about them the way I care about people in San Diego. If I saw a San Diegan enter cardiac arrest, I'd call 911. If I saw someone's child sleeping unprotected in Haut Katanga Province, I'd buy them a net.

I know all this in my brain, so it's not very hard to take the requisite actions even without flying to the DRC. Imagination can save you a lot of money on plane tickets.

Things that help me cultivate the "people are real" feeling:

• Dollar Street
• Life in a Day
• Matt Lakeman's travel blog, where he visits dozens of countries and meets hundreds of normal people: helpful guides, annoying jerks, pushy salespeople, friendly chatterboxes, all the same archetypes you'd find in your own city.
• Hearing my mother talk about her work with Operation Smile: Cute kids and worried parents are much the same the world over.

I've seen how the (vegan) sausage is made

When I signed the 10% Pledge, I'd met about five people in effective altruism, all over Skype (Jaan Tallinn, Estonia).

Now, I've met several hundred, including representatives of dozens of charities that I've either supported or might support someday. I've asked them about their work. I've looked at photos from their labs and medical sites. I've read their impact calculations. I've eaten the fake burgers they helped develop.^[5]

No project is perfect, and no conversation substitutes perfectly for watching the work up close — something I still haven't done (again, plane tickets are expensive). But on the whole, my experience has been excellent. I've developed enormous levels of trust in the people doing the work I fund; they've largely been honest, calibrated, and thoughtful in response to criticism. I'm not an amazing judge of character, but when I compare the characters I've met in EA to those I've met everywhere else, EA stacks up well.

1. ^{^}

   Current donation page available here. I realize that I'm talking a big game for someone who only gives 10%, and doesn't spend much time trying to convince others to donate. I plan to change both of those things going forward.

2. ^{^}

   This is very far from a complete list, because I tried to keep it under 1000 words. Success! (Unless you count these footnotes.)

3. ^{^}

   I would not advise seeking out Lime King's music unless you have a taste for rap that is both highly abrasive and sexually explicit. Ideally, you'd also know a lot about Pokemon. If you check those boxes, you're in for a treat.

^{^}

As long as that story continues — hence my support for work that could reduce global catastrophic risk.

^{^}

This post is very human-centric, because that's honestly what inspires me, and my donations tend to support human-focused charities. But I also love the part of humanity that cares about helping other creatures. 

And of course, animals are also real: people would probably eat less meat (and donate to more farm animal charities) if they all visited factory farms.

Show all footnotes