Kvetch
Eureka
Portrait of an Effective Altruist as a Young Man (my conversation with Rob Wiblin)
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Portrait of an Effective Altruist as a Young Man (my conversation with Rob Wiblin)

Rob Wiblin is a founder and leader of the modern Effective Altruism movement…. and one of my oldest friends!

This conversation is different because there’s not much about Effective Altruism – there’s Rob’s excellent podcast and prolific writing for that. This conversation is a chat between old mates, and it tries to track our intellectual development since we were teens. Is that self-indulgent? Maybe! But it’s the conversation I was excited to have with Rob.

We cover a lot:

  • What Rob learnt from his parents

  • How we shaped each other’s views

  • My Theory of Rob

  • Rob’s excellent conversation with Russ Roberts (best rebuttal of Effective Altruism on record)

  • How Rob’s views have changed since starting out with EA and how confident he is in his views

  • What keeps him up at night

  • Whether he’s winning

  • Should we stop eating animals?

  • What we’re watching

  • Why has the Lord of The Rings held up so well?

  • Podcasting tips

  • On kids

  • Was learning Spanish a mistake?

  • What was it like being an exchange student in Spain

  • On institutional decline and the US today

Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Discussion about this podcast