Coding to Give
I’ve never been motivated by money, and code
has always scared me. So why am I pushing
myself to become a well-paid programmer?
My parents were well-off, and being a geek who can occupy himself with the untold reaches of the internet and endless expanses to be explored in games, I have conveniently inexpensive tastes. My father endowed me with the habit of fiscal conservatism (and set me up with a IRA and an investment account). And, funded by my grandfather, I chose to attend college for Art & Design, fully aware it would not greatly benefit me in the otherwise ubiquitous quest for wealth.
All of this privilege has, in a way, kept me modest and somewhat unmotivated. And in recent years, that effect has been bolstered by the evidence that, while money can buy happiness, but not past an income of $75,000. In my case, and for other material minimalists, probably quite a bit less.
My sense of altruism and empathy on a large scale has been similarly tempered.
Growing up, it felt like the message I got from society was: one person just can’t do much. The problems in the world are huge and structural, and naive reformers will eventually just become disillusioned and burn out. We can try to make small efforts in our personal lives, but they’re tiny and won’t scale.
But recently, both of these forgone conclusions have been utterly inverted. I now want to make as much money as I can, and to help as many people as I can.
What changed my mind?
What if you actually knew that your actions could had vast, substantive, far-reaching, and verifiable positive effects on the world, and the future?
Those who have learned about effective altruism do.
With careful examination, some philosophy, and a lot of science, we can optimize the amount of good we do, to improve the world by orders of magnitude. We can prevent vast amounts of suffering, disease, and death, eliminate global poverty, approach the equality of all humans, and ensure humanity’s future potential against global catastrophes and even the risk of extinction.
These are lofty goals, but it can start simply, with identifying existing charities that are thousands of times more effective than others, and yet are less funded than substantially less effective ones. GiveWell is an organization taking it upon themselves to identify these outstanding opportunities to donate.
Somehow, this concept is only recently coming to fruition. But it is so powerful that it has caused a social movement to quickly grow to thousands across the world in just a few years, and everyone involved is supremely excited by its prospects.
While I’ve been glued for a computer for most of my life, the code that runs things behind the scenes has always been something of a stop sign. Due to a poor grasp of math during my education, I’ve discouraged myself from getting close to it. But finally after a few years of hearing that most of programming doesn’t require much skill at math (indeed, skill at googling is more important), fiddling with scripting and modding of games, and getting very positive encouragement from effective altruists who have taken this path before, I felt galvanized enough to take the plunge.
And programming seems to be the last skill humanity need acquire. The future will be built with code. And even if I am unable to work directly on making the world a vastly better place, I hope to be the best programmer I can, and redirect a significant percent of my income towards the organizations that will.
And I was thrilled to discover that I could learn to do so here in Durham, at The Iron Yard Academy, to which I applied, was accepted, and began two weeks ago. It’s been challenging, and no doubt greater challenges lie ahead, even beyond the course.
But now I have something to fight for.
There are many more aspects to effective altruism, which I may write about in the future, but you can start being an effective altruist by simply learning more about it, and putting some thought into your choices about spending and giving.
Here’s a great place to learn more, and many effective altruists write articles about important and impactful ideas at the EA Forum.
