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The least impactful way to spend $300M?
71–80 of 291 posts
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#72I like the idea of Effective Altruism (EA), but it’s ironic to use EA to call out ineffective charitable spending in the wake of all the Effective Altruism ridiculousness of recent years. EA was a key part of SBF’s cover story to make his frauds appear to be coming from a philanthropic angle. An EA figurehead recently spent multiple millions, some of which was FTX donations, on a castle/chateau to “host events”, whic…
> Hardcore EA proponents will get staunchly defensive about all of this weird spending, but then they’ll single out $300mm donations like this for not going to malaria nets. It’s getting old.
Maybe because one is 300mm and one is 30k? It's a difference of four orders of magnitude. It's like saying "EA proponents will get weirdly upset about burning down a house, but then the very next day they'll go and light a candle."
(Also, HPMoR does a great job at getting more people into EA - it isn't quite as superfluous as your comment makes it seem.)
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#73Medical devices and medical innovation in general. There are so many medical devices and therapies that are technically possible, exist in some form or another, but do not meet the 10x returns that typical VC and big medtech players demand on their products. There are so many opportunities to really help people that are suffering that may not be super profitable, but aren't money loosers either.
You’re answering the question of how least useful to donate it?
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#74Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#75There are the times where, deeply inside of me, I think that maybe Mao Zedong was right.
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#76Side topic. Is it better for society to give 300mil to an ivy league. Or start a new university?
How about giving it to a poor university that needs the money?
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#77And meanwhile Harvard still needs to take a 70% overhead rate on my grants, so they can add more cash to their Scrooge McDuck pile.
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#78I like the idea of Effective Altruism (EA), but it’s ironic to use EA to call out ineffective charitable spending in the wake of all the Effective Altruism ridiculousness of recent years. EA was a key part of SBF’s cover story to make his frauds appear to be coming from a philanthropic angle. An EA figurehead recently spent multiple millions, some of which was FTX donations, on a castle/chateau to “host events”, whic…
> Hardcore EA proponents will get staunchly defensive about all of this weird spending, but then they’ll single out $300mm donations like this for not going to malaria nets. It’s getting old. Maybe because one is 300mm and one is 30k? It's a difference of four orders of magnitude. It's like saying "EA proponents will get weirdly upset about burning down a house, but then the very next day they'll go and light a candl…
The Harry Potter fan fiction thing was something they got together and voted for. It’s not something they’d criticize because they chose it themselves. I brought it forward as an example of the difference between their criticisms of other people’s donations and their own actual choices for grants.
The multi million dollar castle purchase is more recent and more ridiculous. It used ill-gotten FTX funds in the process, too.
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#79I like the idea of Effective Altruism (EA), but it’s ironic to use EA to call out ineffective charitable spending in the wake of all the Effective Altruism ridiculousness of recent years. EA was a key part of SBF’s cover story to make his frauds appear to be coming from a philanthropic angle. An EA figurehead recently spent multiple millions, some of which was FTX donations, on a castle/chateau to “host events”, whic…
Somehow EA always comes back to spending money on 'working on AI risk' which somehow never produces anything but blog posts.
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#80I don't think one donates money to Harvard just for the sake of a plaque. I guess there is some sort of indirect benefit to be had after such a donation, like an entry pass for a child, an entry pass for a PhD, or something of that vein?
I think that’s thinking too much into it. He could have spent 1/10th of that and got those things in return. These billionaires want fame and to be the focus of discussions like this one. They know people will be in awe over such a huge sum of money. That’s what $300M buys you and is so much more interesting than buying a product: attention and fame.
1/100th probably.