I often think about "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".[1] I'm unsure to what degree this is true, but it does seem that people trying to do good have caused more negative consequences in aggregate than one might naively expect.[2] "Power corrupts" and "power-seekers using altruism as an excuse to gain power" are two often cited reasons for this, but I think don't explain all of it.

A more subtle reason is that even when people are genuinely trying to do good, they're not entirely aligned with goodness. Status-seeking is a powerful motivation for almost all humans, including altruists, and we frequently award social status to people for merely trying to do good, before seeing all of the consequences of their actions. This is in some sense inevitable as there are no good alternatives. We often need to award people with social status before all of [...]

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
February 1st, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DYxFbhc8RbjmCwzDf/managing-risks-while-trying-to-do-good

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Managing risks while trying to do good” by Wei Dai

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Managing risks while trying to do good” by Wei Dai