I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit • Hacker News Board

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#11

Post by estearum » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 7:42 PM UTC

unmole wrote: post #10

zero_shift wrote: post #7

I'm glad to hear someone else calling out Bregman. His work is very flimsy, and I have been a hater for close to 10 years [1]. I think Bregman skirts close to the "Effective Altruism" movement and his work has similar problems of choosing flashy, exciting, elitist projects over boring, uncomfortable, policy changes. His enamourment with "AI!!!" (exclamations mandatory) is par for the course. Basically a fantasy that…

> I think Bregman skirts close to the "Effective Altruism" movement and his work has similar problems of choosing flashy, exciting, elitist projects over boring, uncomfortable, policy changes. I'm sorry, but what? The most prominent EA projects focus on cost effective interventions that save and improve lives. Give Well's current top recommendations are medicines and nets to prevent malaria, vitamin A supplements and…

You don't need to apologize! People like GP are just liars.

It's incredible the consistency with which you can go from [negative opinion about EA] to [revealed extreme ignorance of EA]. Just let the person talk for another sentence or two and they'll out themselves as having literally zero familiarity whatsoever with EA.

"EA sucks because it pursues flashy, exciting projects" is an insane position that, truly, only a liar could write.

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#12

Post by bodiekane » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

protimewaster wrote: post #4

doctorpangloss wrote: post #3

> AI will create an utopia where people can actually work less hours well if you're unemployed, how many hours are you working

I don't understand why anyone who sees how the world works would expect us to end up with a utopia where people work less. The trend has almost always been to work the same, or more, hours as new technologies come out, and you'll be expected to get more done using the new technologies. Why would AI be any different? But, yeah, the people who no longer have jobs will be working less, that's true.

> Why would AI be any different?

The speed, the scale and the class of people impacted are all novel.

AI will likely cause massive displacement in the span of a few years which prior advancements had spread out over decades. In 1850 the US was 30% urban, in 1950 it was 64% and today it's 82%. Spreading the change out over 150 years doesn't yield the same sort of shock to the system that rapid changes do, and correspondingly doesn't result in the same sort of political force to change society.

It might be better to look not at "new technologies" but instead what happens after "sudden mass unemployment" like the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, which in turn led to unprecedented new policies like the New Deal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal).

Also relevant - the people about to be unemployed aren't the already disenfranchised lower classes. I won't be surprised if there's more sympathy from the people in power when the unemployed are their friends, family and former classmates.

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#13

Post by metalman » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

at the bottom of the page is a read out from the solar pv system that powers the blogs server, which is working fine under a significant load, but I have to wonder if the HN hug of death might prove real if this were to stay on.the first page for long

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#14

Post by adjejmxbdjdn » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 1:35 AM UTC

There is literally nothing about the school of moral ambition here other than the fact that it’s taken donations from the Gates Foundation.

I guess hundreds of groups saving millions of lives across Africa and Asia through malaria nets and polio vaccinations are also full of shit because they took money from the Gates Foundation.

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#15

Post by lern_too_spel » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 5:10 AM UTC

simianwords wrote: post #9

The author has a problem with Rutger Bregman thinking there exists "talented" people. Lol you can't make this stuff up >In interviews I've noticed that Bregman talks a lot about 'talented' people. For him, talented people are highly educated people. To get a fellowship with SMA, there are all kinds of criteria a candidate needs to hit and one of them is academic credentials, work experience and so on. How ridiculous…

I had never heard of Rutger or the author of this article before. The author comes off as reactionary and sloppy.

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#16

Post by adammarples » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 7:55 AM UTC

estearum wrote: post #11

unmole wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think Bregman skirts close to the "Effective Altruism" movement and his work has similar problems of choosing flashy, exciting, elitist projects over boring, uncomfortable, policy changes. I'm sorry, but what? The most prominent EA projects focus on cost effective interventions that save and improve lives. Give Well's current top recommendations are medicines and nets to prevent malaria, vitamin A supplements and…

You don't need to apologize! People like GP are just liars. It's incredible the consistency with which you can go from [negative opinion about EA] to [revealed extreme ignorance of EA] . Just let the person talk for another sentence or two and they'll out themselves as having literally zero familiarity whatsoever with EA. "EA sucks because it pursues flashy, exciting projects" is an insane position that, truly, only…

The centre for effective altruism puts most of its efforts into mitigating the risks of super intelligent AI doesn't it?

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#17

Post by unmole » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 10:59 AM UTC

adammarples wrote: post #16

estearum wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to apologize! People like GP are just liars. It's incredible the consistency with which you can go from [negative opinion about EA] to [revealed extreme ignorance of EA] . Just let the person talk for another sentence or two and they'll out themselves as having literally zero familiarity whatsoever with EA. "EA sucks because it pursues flashy, exciting projects" is an insane position that, truly, only…

The centre for effective altruism puts most of its efforts into mitigating the risks of super intelligent AI doesn't it?

No.

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#18

Post by estearum » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 12:02 PM UTC

adammarples wrote: post #16

estearum wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to apologize! People like GP are just liars. It's incredible the consistency with which you can go from [negative opinion about EA] to [revealed extreme ignorance of EA] . Just let the person talk for another sentence or two and they'll out themselves as having literally zero familiarity whatsoever with EA. "EA sucks because it pursues flashy, exciting projects" is an insane position that, truly, only…

The centre for effective altruism puts most of its efforts into mitigating the risks of super intelligent AI doesn't it?

Step 1. Go to https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/

Step 2. Click "Find a charity to donate to", which links you here: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/best-charities-to-donate-to-...

Step 3. Read the list of cause areas

Here's a preview since apparently there are hordes of overconfident people too "busy" to follow simple steps like these:

3 cause areas: Global health & Wellbeing, Animal Welfare, Global Catastrophic Risk

Global Health:

* Malaria

* Vitamin A for children

* Vaccines for children

* GiveWell, an aggregator for charities similar to the prior 4

Animal Welfare:

* Fund aggregators to increase animal wellbeing by the dozens, hundreds, or thousands, or millions of living creatures' suffering

Global Catastrophic Risk:

* Research on AI risk, bioengineering risk, and nuclear risk – all of which

AI is not only listed last, but doesn't even have its own dedicated page. It's lumped in with a set of other things that many people believe are long-term risks rather than immediate term massive problems, like childhood vaccinations, malaria, or industrial animal abuse.

Hope that helps!

Re: I Think Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition Are Full of Shit

#19

Post by louwrentius » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 11:52 PM UTC

metalman wrote: post #13

at the bottom of the page is a read out from the solar pv system that powers the blogs server, which is working fine under a significant load, but I have to wonder if the HN hug of death might prove real if this were to stay on.the first page for long

Author: I've had multiple HN hits and the Pi4 (on residential gigabit fiber) never got any significant load.