IMPACTivism: Get better at doing good

What’s the difference between participating in change and CREATING a difference? Well, one is like reading a script, and the other is writing it. In one case, a mold predates actions, and in the other, our actions mold creations.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of seeing what our family and friends, our community, our world as whole, what it all would have looked like had we never rubbed off on it, had we never been a part of its story, had we never been born. And we don’t have control groups to see what would have happened had we made different choices, had we taken that opportunity before it passed, had we looked closer into the details before we jumped to conclusions. But in order to really know the difference we’re making through the act of living our lives, these are really the biggest question we have to consider: what would have happened otherwise, and where does our marginal contribution create the largest marginal difference?

Jordan Lejuwaan is the founder of HighExistence.com, the founder of the Valhalla Movement, the founder of Rave Nectar, and last but definitely not least, the co-founder and current CTO of Futurism.com. Back in January, Jordan found himself listed as one of Forbe’s 30 under 30 for up and coming in the media category, and he just never seems to stop.

So today in this episode, Jordan enlightened me on a few of his visions for the future, what he sees to have potential to solve some of our biggest problems. And these range from artificial intelligence to cryptocurrencies to meditation to universal basic income to virtual reality in refugee camps, to name a few.

A very special thank you to HÄANA (Violinist, vocalist and producer) for allowing me to use her beautiful music for the intro and outro, and throughout the podcast. She is one of my favorite artists and I'm super happy to be able to share her music with you all. You can find HÄANA on SoundCloud, on Facebook, and on iTunes.

What's the difference between doing less harm and actively choosing to do more good? They seem likely to achieve the same net impact, but in this episode, host Logan Sullivan explains why that's not always the case. When we think about it, doing less harm is still doing some harm, leaving behind a world worse off for our having been a part of it. And when we limit our harm, we lessen the degree to which the world is worse off. But in doing less harm, we can only lessen this degree by the amount of harm we're doing. Yet, in choosing to do more good, the positive impact we can leave is theoretically limitless.

Music by HÄANA, including music from her Copal project. Check her out on SoundCloud and iTunes.

Are we actually benefiting the people, animals or causes we're hoping to benefit through our actions, or maybe just our co-workers, co-volunteers, or friends? In this episode, I discuss why it's so important to ask this question and how to answer it. If we want to do as much good as we can, hopefully we're aiming our actions at the highest yielding targets, and remaining critical to who is actually realizing the most benefit.

Moral Licensing is a phenomenon studied closely in social psychology that describes one way we can accidentally allow ourselves to act against what we believe to be moral when we’re not consciously aware of what’s happening.

In this episode, I highlight some of its dangers, not when it comes to our justifications for avoiding the gym, but when it comes to our justifications for acting in contradiction to what we believe in, what we know to be right and ethical. I also explain how not to fall victim to this effect and how to continue to impact positive change despite it. And lastly, I discuss some other dangerous cognitive biases and mental imperfections that amplify the negative consequences of this effect if we’re not paying attention.

And a special thanks to one of my favorite artists, HÄANA, violinist and producer, for all the beautiful music in this episode! Look her up here on SoundCloud!

When you hear how many lives an individual doctor in America is actually responsible for saving, you might be surprised. In this episode, I’ll show why this should actually be really good news, and why we should all feel incredibly empowered by this fact.

Doctors, social workers, aid workers, teachers, councilors: they’re not a special breed of humans more capable of doing good than you or I. If you did not go into a helping profession yourself, and because of this, you feel less capable of impacting change in the world, I promise to show you why that’s just not the case. And I’ll explain why YOU, and anybody at all living in a developed country, have, without question the ability to save many times as many lives and impact many times as much positive change in the world throughout your lifetime as any doctor.

Interview with Brian Luscombe discussing a pledge we both made to donate 10% of our income for the rest of our lives to highly impactful nonprofits addressing priority issues efficiently. I’ve planned to make this pledge for a long time, but needed something to trigger me to officially make it. And that something was the election. So I’ve also pledge to up this pledge to 20% through the duration of Trump’s presidency.

It seems like, as much as ever before, people are energized to do good, in the broadest sense. We are frustrated by the reality we’re seeing play out on the news, and we’re angered by the apathy and ignorance of so many. But we’re also tired of being defeated. Shouldn’t we then reconsider our approach?

But what scares me most about Trump is not what will happen to America, but what will be the byproduct of this “America First” mentality on the most vulnerable people, non-human animals and environmental causes in non-America. I’m scared of the byproduct of an extraordinarily powerful and influential country act in an extraordinarily selfish way, standing behind a leader who promises to pursue America wealth, supremacy and dominance at any cost.

If we deconstruct our frustration with a Trump administration, it seems that our fear can be boiled down to, at the most foundational level, to a fear of decreased wellbeing for the marginalized and vulnerable, increased inequality, and decreased prospects for investing constructively in a just and equitable future.

So, with that in mind, I could take my frustration and yell emotionally at not-my-president marches, or I could see how I can do what’s within my reach to counter these effects; to increase wellbeing for the marginalized and vulnerable, to decrease inequality, and to increase prospects of investing constructively in a just and equitable future. And one very simple way, as an America living on one extreme end of that global income inequality scale, I know my donation can go a long way if given very effectively, because I’m not empowered to stop Trump, but I am empowered to cure blindness for 100 dollars, save a human life for 3500 dollars, or an animal life for 10 cents, and keep a metric ton of CO2 equivalents of the atmosphere for a 1.34. And to put this into perspective, the average american is responsible for emitting 21 metric tons of CO2 Equivalents per year.

We discuss much more than this, promise. We also examine how easy it will be the make this pledge, and the EXTREME differences between our minimal sacrifice and the maximal gain of others, if donated effectively. We discuss what cause we will support at why, what organizations are providing the most reliable analysis of the effectiveness of nonprofits, and we even dip into the potential of artificial intelligence to solve world problems (and to cause them).

The ability to make choices in life is rare. For the majority of humanity, both historically and currently, when choices exist for their making, survival considerations are necessarily the priority. Yet, if you have the ability to stream this podcast, or read this post, you’re not likely one of those people. So when you have the ability in your life to make the fun choice, or the fulfilling choice, don’t take that luxury for granted. And when the opportunity arrives to choose to alleviate suffering, increase wellbeing, or to simply make the world a better place, THIS is fortune, THIS is breathtaking, THIS is the opportunity of a lifetime that a select few of us are granted every single day. Don’t waste it.

Positive intentions correlate to positive impact to the extent that authentically wanting to do good might urge us to do a couple things: it might urge us to remain energized and committed to the cause, it might urge us to follow through to the very end, and most importantly, it might urge us to lean towards strategic and rational tactics that make use of relevant data and information. In the end, if no positive outcome results from positive intentions, then what’s achieved? This episode make the argument that our objective when doing good should not be the ACT of doing good, but to IMPACT good. If we fail to scrutinize the actions that follow our good intentions, questioning their impact, do we authentically care for the cause we’re acting on behalf of?

So, without devaluing the importance of positive intentions, lets recognize that outcomes only follow intentions when this positivity is applied rationally and effectively. And with that in mind, remember that benevolent actions are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. If we really do care and want to be a part of making the world a better place, then impact should remain the objective.

The IMPACTivism Podcast is about how each of us, as individuals, can most effectively impact positive shifts in circumstances in the world we love and share.

It’s about how we’re completely disempowered to change certain things, and about how ridiculously empowered we are to change others, and about how to direct our attention, energy and resources to the latter.

Its about the magnitude if inefficient and ineffective ways or trying to do good, and about those select avenues that can accomplish so much, and how we can very simply choose to involve ourselves in the effective ones.

Its about ideas we can consider, choices we can make and action we can take to help alleviate the suffering and increase the wellbeing of humans and non-human animals, and how we can most constructively contribute to the health of our planet as a whole.

I’ll break down where our intuitions can often lead us astray when attempting to do good in the world, and how we can use our emotions not to guide our actions, but as fuel while allowing logic to remain in the drivers seat.

I’ll differentiate between good intentions and positive outcomes, between participating in change and creating a difference, between self-regarding and other-regarding actions, between doing less harm and actively doing good.

I’ll discuss our position in the world and what it means to be alive, well, educated and above the poverty line in the America in 2017.

I’ll highlight common logical fallacies and cognitive biases that may lead us to overestimate the positive impact of certain actions, and to drastically underestimate others.

I’ll talk about the value of challenging our limited perspectives and of opening our minds.

I’ll often refer to the Effective Altruism movement, to the 80/20 principle, to practical ethics and applied psychology, and how one individual can harness these philosophies as tools for achieving personal effectiveness first in how we attempt to go good, as well as in our lives in general.

I’ll constantly ask, what would have happened otherwise, what is the difference between the world you live in now, and that counterfactual world at the same point in time had you never been born, or had you made a different choice.

I guess its about how we can each live a life in which the difference between these two worlds is the largest, where the world you live in now, the one you’re a part of is better off for you having lived your life.

It’s not about how we can simply do our part as a contributing citizen, or do no harm, but rather about why we should aspire to do more, about how we can think and act in accordance with these aspirations, and how easy it actually is to do good if we’re thinking critically.

And its about achieving this impact WHILE living well, finding joy and fulfillment in the the process. Its about achieving the most good with the least sacrifice.

And lastly, I’ll talk about some of my experiences in investigating these topics through the lens of my work, travel and research.