Magnus Vinding: The Tree of Priorities: A (Cause) Prioritization Framework

Abstract

Altruistic individuals often focus on causes they happen upon rather than systematically determining which are most important, leading to potentially suboptimal resource allocation. While people may update their focus over time as they learn about different issues—such as poverty, non-human animal suffering, wild animal welfare, or the far future—this progression is often haphazard. Cause prioritization is presented as a more direct and systematic approach: the deliberate effort to evaluate and compare different potential causes to identify those where resources can achieve the greatest positive impact, according to one’s values. Instead of merely optimizing actions within a given cause, cause prioritization involves a meta-level analysis to determine which causes should be focused on initially. This deliberate exploration aims to be more efficient than chance discovery in identifying the most pressing global problems, thereby increasing the potential effectiveness of altruistic actions. – AI-generated abstract.