Giving and Notariety

April 4th, 2010
money
Yesterday, two friends came to dye eggs with us. One of them we had never met before, but through various people she had apparently heard of Julia and I as examples of people who had an extreme view of giving and money. Giving a little more than half of our pre-tax income to oxfam is extreme, but I was kind of surprised that we were being examples.

Really, though, acting as examples, and ideally convincing others to view money and obligation similarly to us, is about the most effective thing we can do. If we work hard to reduce our food spending from $200/month to $150/month, that has roughly 12% of the effect of someone who earns $50K going from donating roughly nothing to ten percent. So, if you don't currently donate a substantial fraction of your income, I'd be happy to talk to you about why I think it's the right thing to do.

Comment via: facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Tuberculosis Considered As Dating Strategy

Against some evopsych

via Thing of Things July 8, 2025

Retrospective on life tracking and effectiveness systems

I’ve been doing life tracking for around 10 years, and this post is looking back at some things I learned from the data (since my previous retrospective in 2017). Highlights include what I get out of the Oura ring, correlations between sleep and deep work…

via Victoria Krakovna July 4, 2025

Elixir's Last Dance

On May 18th, the contra dance band Elixir had their last gig ever. The dance was packed: there were three hundred people. It was the only dance BIDA has ever done where they sold tickets. People flew from across the country just to hear Elixir play one la…

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts June 5, 2025

more     (via openring)