In a recent bonus episode of the Bayesian Conspiracy podcast, Eneasz Brodski shared a thought experiment that caused no small amount of anguish. In the hypothetical, some eccentric but trustworthy entity is offering to give you an escalating amount of money for your fingers, starting at $10,000 for the first one and increasing 10x per finger up to $10 trillion for all of them.[1] On encountering this thought experiment, Eneasz felt (not without justification) that he mostly valued his manual dexterity more than wealth. Then, two acquaintances pointed out that one could use the $10 trillion to do a lot of good, and Eneasz proceeded to feel terrible about his decision.

I had several responses to this episode, but today I'm going to focus on one of them: the difference between cost and sacrifice.

How Ayn Rand Made Me a Better Altruist

But first, a personal anecdote. I was [...]

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Outline:

(00:53) How Ayn Rand Made Me a Better Altruist

(03:23) Cost vs Sacrifice

(05:21) Own Your Values

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.