Effective Altruism Is a Waste of Money: Can it Be Fixed? (Hard EA)

In this episode, Malcolm and Simone make a significant announcement: they are stepping back from their day jobs to launch 'Hard EA,' a platform focusing on true, impactful solutions to humanity's major existential threats. Disappointed by the current state of the Effective Altruism (EA) movement, they express concerns over its focus on social signaling rather than substantive change. They break down their new initiative’s core values and priorities, including pragmatic and pluralistic solutions to societal issues, biological innovation, and AI safety. The duo aims to attract like-minded individuals and organizations committed to making a genuine difference and confronting the hard truths of our time.

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/EGFRjwwS92

Songs Used:

EA Has Capitulated (The Hard EA Song):

Beyond Pleasure and Pain (The Anti-Antinatalist Song):

We are More Than Animals (The Anti-Antinatalist Song):

Website: HardEA.org

[00:00:00] What could be more important than ,

Malcolm Collins: Earning the approval of normies.

.

Richard? Science?

Malcolm Collins: Hello, Simone! I'm excited to be here with you today. This might be the most important announcement from a personal perspective that we have made on this show but recently we have decided to begin stepping back from our day jobs to focus more on trying to fix it. , this untethering society that we are dealing with right now, as well as the many threats to humanity's flourishing that are on the horizon at the moment. This major decision has come downstream of two big realizations I had recently.

The first was, as I do about every year or every other year, it's, I took inventory of all of the major threats or big things that could change about the future of humanity so I can better make my own plans for the future and [00:01:00] for my kids future, but this time I did something I hadn't done before.

Decided to also take an inventory of all of the major efforts that are focused on alleviating these potential threats. And I had assumed, as we've often said, you know, we've been affiliated with the periphery of the effective altruist movement for a while that while the effective altruists may have problems, they were at least competently working on these issues because they were signaling that they cared about them.

But when I looked at the actual solutions they were attempting, I was shocked. It made me realize that a lot of the funding that I thought Was going to fixing these issues was going to something akin from that scene from Indiana Jones

Speaker 10: We have top men working on it right now. Who?

Speaker 12: Top men.

[00:02:00]

Speaker 14: The goal was to reform charity In a world where selfless giving had become a rarity No vain spotlight, no sweet disguise Just honest giving, no social prize But as the monoculture took the stage It broke their integrity, feigning righteous rage Now every move is played so safe Ignoring truths that are Make them chafe.

EA has capitulated to everything it said it hated. Once they

were bold, now they just do what they're told. In caution they lost their [00:03:00] way. Time for a heart EA.

Malcolm Collins: Second I have always considered us as again Adjacent to the effective altruist movement or living was in the periphery of this movement and heckling it towards making more responsible decisions Recently, as I was going over the stats for our podcast and other podcasts, I realized that our podcast is more popular than the most popular Affective Altruist podcast, 80, 000 Hours by not a small margin either.

Now I will note here that Spencer Greenberg's podcast, clearer thinking, which many associate with the effective altruist movement is actually more popular than ours. I will not deny that. I really liked Spencer.

Good friend. But

Simone Collins: he personally doesn't identify as an effective altruist.

Malcolm Collins: And when I realized that I was like, Oh, I'm no longer like a heckler on the outside. Pointing out the mistakes that other people are making. I am now somebody who has to [00:04:00] take responsibility for fixing things, especially if the timelines that humanity is facing are short. And so we will create an alternative with heart EA.

org. So, what we have done to distribute this, we're going to start doing grants. So if you have ideas that you think might appeal to us, we would like to help fund you help get stuff out there.

Obviously we are looking to raise money as well. We already have a 5 0 1 C three nonprofit charity. So if you know any big potential donors who might be interested in this, please let them know about this project.

And I note here that unlike traditional EA, we are not just looking for iterative solution to the world's existing problems, but anything that can move humidity forward into the next era of our evolution.

Whether that's genetic modification technology, gene drives brain computer interface, artificial wombs, or new forms of governance and city states.

Anything, the traditional effective altruists were afraid of touching because of its potential effect on their reputation, but that needs to happen for humanity to compete with AI and eventually get to the [00:05:00] stars.

Speaker 11: We stand on the brink of a breakthrough in human evolution.

Malcolm Collins: Effective altruism.

Speaker 11: Held back the pace of scientific discovery for decades. They believed in me. I believed my methods were too radical, too controversial, and they tried to silence me. New patrons emerged who possessed an appetite for my discoveries. And we With this knowledge, what new world could we build?

Speaker 6: Young people from all over the globe are joining up to fight for the future.

Speaker 8: I'm

Speaker 7: doing my

Speaker 6: part. I'm doing my part. I'm

Speaker 7: doing my part. I'm doing my

Speaker 9: part, too. They're doing their part. Are you? .

Malcolm Collins: And the 2nd thing I noted here was. Oh, shoot. Most of the mainstream figures who could have stand or run or help the EA movement [00:06:00] continue to grow have been Order 66 by the movement. And I realize that even some nerds don't know what this means. This is the order that the Empire gave to kill all the Jedi.

Speaker 51: Now, let's get a move on. We've got a battle to win here.

Speaker 52: Sir!

Speaker 53: Execute Order 66.

Blast them!

Malcolm Collins: What I mean here is when they have somebody who is extra effective, they turn on the individual. In a

Simone Collins: weird way, like to an extent that I've never seen it. Any other cause area or social space.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. And as such many people who might be their greatest champions now, like say Spencer Greenberg, or just like, I don't want to be affiliated as having that attached to my brand, but this provides opportunity to us.

One, it makes it hard for them to say, you guys aren't real EA when [00:07:00] we have a bigger platform than any of the quote unquote, real EA individuals. But two, it allows us to attempt to cure the movement, even through our advocacy. By that, what I mean is the effective altruist movement was originally founded with the intention of saying, Most philanthropy that's happening right now is being done for social signaling rea