The Nonlinear Library EA - 10 years of Earning to Give by AGB
Nov 8, 2023
14:51
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: 10 years of Earning to Give, published by AGB on November 8, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. General note: The bulk of this post was written a couple of months ago, but I am releasing it now to coincide with the Effective Giving Spotlight week. I shortly expect to release a second post documenting some observations on the community
building funding landscape.
Introduction
Way back in 2010, I was sitting in my parents' house, watching one of my favourite TV shows, the UK's Daily Politics. That day's guest was an Oxford academic by the name of Toby Ord. He was donating everything above 18000 (26300 in today's money) to charity, and gently pushing others to give 10%.
"Nice guy," I thought. "Pity it'll never catch on."
Two years later, a couple of peers interned at Giving What We Can. At the same time, I did my own internship in finance, and my estimate of my earning potential quadrupled[1]. One year after that, I graduated and took the Giving What We Can pledge myself. While my pledge form read that I had committed to donate 20% of my income, my goal was to hit far higher percentages.
How did that go?
Post goals
Earning To Give was one of EA's first ideas to get major mainstream attention, much of it negative. Some was mean-spirited, but some of it read to me as a genuine attempt to warn young people about what they were signing up for. For example, from the linked David Brooks piece:
From the article, Trigg seems like an earnest, morally serious man...
First, you might start down this course seeing finance as a convenient means to realize your deepest commitment: fighting malaria. But the brain is a malleable organ....Every hour you spend with others, you become more like the people around you.
If there is a large gap between your daily conduct and your core commitment, you will become more like your daily activities and less attached to your original commitment. You will become more hedge fund, less malaria. There's nothing wrong with working at a hedge fund, but it's not the priority you started out with.
At the time, EAs had little choice but to respond to such speculation with speculation of their own. At this point, I can at least answer how some things have played out for me personally. I have divided this post into reflections on my personal EtG path and on the EA community.
My path
First, some context. Over the past decade:
My wife Denise and I have donated 1.5m.[2]
This equates to 46% of our combined gross incomes.[2]
The rest of the money is split 550k / 550k / 700k between spending / saving (incl. pension) / taxes.[2]
We have three children (ages 13, 6, 2) and live in London.
I work as a trader, formerly at a quant trading firm and now at a hedge fund.
Work
Many critics of EtG assume that we really want to be doing something meaningful, but have - with a heavy heart - intellectually conceded that money is what matters.
I want to emphasise this: This is not me, and I doubt it applies to even 20% of people doing EtG. If you currently feel this way, I strongly suspect you should stop.
I like my work. I get to work with incredibly sharp and motivated people. I get to work on a diverse array of intellectual challenges. Most of all, I've managed to land a career that bears an uncanny resemblance to what I do with my spare time; playing games, looking for inconsistencies in others' beliefs, and exploiting that to win.
But prior to discovering EtG, I was wrestling with the fact that this natural choice just seemed very selfish. As I saw it, my choices were to do something directly useful and be miserable but valuable, or to work in finance and be happy but worthless. So a reminder that the money I have a comparative advantage in earning is itself of value was a relief, not a burden.
My career pathway has not been smooth, with a major derailment in 2018, which ...
building funding landscape.
Introduction
Way back in 2010, I was sitting in my parents' house, watching one of my favourite TV shows, the UK's Daily Politics. That day's guest was an Oxford academic by the name of Toby Ord. He was donating everything above 18000 (26300 in today's money) to charity, and gently pushing others to give 10%.
"Nice guy," I thought. "Pity it'll never catch on."
Two years later, a couple of peers interned at Giving What We Can. At the same time, I did my own internship in finance, and my estimate of my earning potential quadrupled[1]. One year after that, I graduated and took the Giving What We Can pledge myself. While my pledge form read that I had committed to donate 20% of my income, my goal was to hit far higher percentages.
How did that go?
Post goals
Earning To Give was one of EA's first ideas to get major mainstream attention, much of it negative. Some was mean-spirited, but some of it read to me as a genuine attempt to warn young people about what they were signing up for. For example, from the linked David Brooks piece:
From the article, Trigg seems like an earnest, morally serious man...
First, you might start down this course seeing finance as a convenient means to realize your deepest commitment: fighting malaria. But the brain is a malleable organ....Every hour you spend with others, you become more like the people around you.
If there is a large gap between your daily conduct and your core commitment, you will become more like your daily activities and less attached to your original commitment. You will become more hedge fund, less malaria. There's nothing wrong with working at a hedge fund, but it's not the priority you started out with.
At the time, EAs had little choice but to respond to such speculation with speculation of their own. At this point, I can at least answer how some things have played out for me personally. I have divided this post into reflections on my personal EtG path and on the EA community.
My path
First, some context. Over the past decade:
My wife Denise and I have donated 1.5m.[2]
This equates to 46% of our combined gross incomes.[2]
The rest of the money is split 550k / 550k / 700k between spending / saving (incl. pension) / taxes.[2]
We have three children (ages 13, 6, 2) and live in London.
I work as a trader, formerly at a quant trading firm and now at a hedge fund.
Work
Many critics of EtG assume that we really want to be doing something meaningful, but have - with a heavy heart - intellectually conceded that money is what matters.
I want to emphasise this: This is not me, and I doubt it applies to even 20% of people doing EtG. If you currently feel this way, I strongly suspect you should stop.
I like my work. I get to work with incredibly sharp and motivated people. I get to work on a diverse array of intellectual challenges. Most of all, I've managed to land a career that bears an uncanny resemblance to what I do with my spare time; playing games, looking for inconsistencies in others' beliefs, and exploiting that to win.
But prior to discovering EtG, I was wrestling with the fact that this natural choice just seemed very selfish. As I saw it, my choices were to do something directly useful and be miserable but valuable, or to work in finance and be happy but worthless. So a reminder that the money I have a comparative advantage in earning is itself of value was a relief, not a burden.
My career pathway has not been smooth, with a major derailment in 2018, which ...