Giving Cheerfully
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Giving Cheerfully


Julia Wise - Giving GladlyI have just come across Julia Wise's blog "Giving Gladly".  She is spending a lot of time thinking how best to live as an effective altruist. I particularly like her latest post, "Cheerfully", in which she describes how she originally thought she would not have a child, because it takes so much time and resources with which you could do a lot of good in the world.  But she had always wanted to be a parent, and she found that it was making her bitter, and she saw the rest of her life “as more of an obligation than a joy.”  So instead she took a more moderate course, and she and her partner Jeff are now planning to have a child.  That hasn't stopped them giving almost half of their income to effective charities, and being a wonderful example of a lifestyle that is not only possible, but enjoyable and rewarding.

Julia puts it this way:

Effective altruism is not about driving yourself to a breakdown. We don't need people making sacrifices that leave them drained and miserable. We need people who can walk cheerfully over the world, or at least do their damnedest.

Julia and Jeff live in Boston where they hold regular "Philanthropy Dinners" open to the public.


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About the author:

Peter Singer

Peter Singer is the author of The Life You Can Save and the founder of the organization to which the book gave rise, and which has the same name. He is Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. In addition to The Life You Can Save his books include: Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, One World, and The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason). In 2013 he ranked 3rd on the Gottleib Duttweiler Institute's list of "Global Thought Leaders."

The views expressed in blog posts are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Peter Singer or The Life You Can Save.