[noonespecial]

You are correct in assuming that I've read very little Robin Hanson. I'll definitely give it a further look.

I've just become tired recently of every large (and usually socially beneficial) charitable donation being followed by a wake of "how could he/she have used his/her oversized wealth for that cause when there are so many more worthy causes that I care about?"

[gamache]

The point is not that the money went to a valid cause that the author doesn't care about; the point is that the money went to an invalid cause. Which is fine and legal and all, but it's not really charity.

[noonespecial]

Actually, upon further reading, I think ck113 has got it dead on. Its not about the money, the individual or even the charity where the money actually ended up. Its about the bizarre social pressures that drive the decisions.

Wish the blog post had spent a few extra sentences setting up some context for those of us who are less "Hanson literate".

[yters]

My question is whether the signalling is actually approaches a deeper optimal.

For example, I seem to be more deeply motivated by things like relationships with others and ideals, than naked self interest or societal interest. These suboptimal choices Hanson points out signal to others the value of the less physically based motivations for themselves. I start to lose hope if I think I'm the only one who has such ideals and somewhat question my own sanity. But, when others signal that these ideals are actually crucial to their own decision making, I feel I'm not the only one and am more motivated to follow them.

But, how do such ideals related to naked self and societal interest? Well, the ideals tend to motivate the deeper insights we generate, and motivate people to work together voluntarily without the overhead of contracts and reward/punishment systems. I would argue that while perhaps inefficient in the short term, these "biases" actually turn out to be much, much more efficient in the long term. I.e. just look at what happens when people do lose hope. They don't suddenly become productivity monsters, instead they tend to turn both self and other destructive. Definitely not creating value in terms of self and societal interest here...