Reflect on giving away a significant portion of your income, potentially 10% or more, because rigorous research shows a few thousand dollars can save a life with near mathematical certainty.
Evaluate rearranging your entire life and career, including altering your profession, to actively implement the principle of doing the most good possible.
Engage in financial giving, as it can make you a happier person and lead to a positive net impact on your well-being, more so than spending on luxury goods.
Make donations to effective charities, as the abstract awareness of saving lives can provide deep reassurance, leading to a more holistic peace and meaning in life.
Cultivate the mental habit of considering the welfare of future generations in your thinking, as this practice is beneficial for both the species and your personal well-being right now.
Cultivate an action-oriented mindset by focusing on what you can do to improve situations, rather than dwelling on how bad things are, whether in your personal life or the world.
Actively envision how wonderfully good the future could be if humanity makes the right choices, reflecting on peak personal experiences as a motivating force for positive change.
Prioritize fostering cultural change regarding long-term thinking, as robust political and institutional changes depend on genuine public concern for future generations.
Begin giving early in your career by donating the excess income as your salary increases, as it’s easier to avoid increasing consumption than to reduce it later.
Consider taking the ‘Try Giving Pledge’ to commit a chosen percentage of your income for a year, or the ‘Giving What We Can 10% Pledge,’ then reflect and gradually increase your giving.
Set up a standing order or direct debit for your chosen donation amount, as this automates the process and requires only one decision.
Utilize resources like givewell.org and givingwhatwecan.org to research and identify charities with proven effectiveness and high cost-effectiveness in various cause areas.
Consider direct cash transfers to the poorest people, as they can best decide how to spend the money to meet their specific needs, often more effectively than prescribed interventions.
Prioritize global health interventions when donating, as the desire to avoid sickness and death from diseases like malaria is a universal human need, ensuring broad impact.
Seek direct information from the people you aim to benefit about their needs and preferred trade-offs, ensuring interventions are aligned with their actual desires and not external assumptions.
Get involved with the Effective Altruism community to gain social support and rewards, as being part of a group doing good can be encouraging and reassuring.
Consider adopting a lifestyle that doesn’t involve large material expenditures, as there are many ways to have a very enjoyable life without significant spending on possessions.
Deepen your understanding of long-termism and its implications, particularly focusing on neglected or overlooked challenges like engineered pandemics and AI risks, to better inform your actions.
Actively make and spread compelling arguments for why society should care about future generations, as this is a key method for driving cultural change.
Leverage various media platforms like podcasts, YouTube, movies, and educational initiatives to disseminate long-termist ideas and foster cultural change.
Consider making significant career changes to work on the most pressing issues impacting the long-term future, as your time can be even more valuable than money in this domain.
Direct your financial donations towards causes that most effectively impact the long-term future, such as those supported by the Long-Term Future Fund at Giving What We Can.
Consider having children and raising them well, as they can contribute positively to society and become change-makers, while their carbon impact can be effectively offset through targeted donations.
Actively maintain an openness to diverse moral perspectives and a wide range of worldviews to ensure continued moral progress and prevent the ‘value lock-in’ of potentially suboptimal values.
Maintain ’low standards’ by appreciating how far humanity has progressed from historical conditions, which can foster optimism and counteract the unhelpful tendency to focus only on negatives.
Employ historical comparison as a thinking tool; on a bad day, reflect on the significantly worse conditions of past generations to gain perspective and reassurance about your present circumstances.