I know who's right and wrong whenver 
There are fights or quarrels; 
I know who should do more or less, 
Who's resting on their laurels -- 

I know the cause of every strife, 
However brief or long: 
So just let me decide, since there
Is no chance that

I'm wrong

People have very strong opinions. The more incomprehensible the subject, or the more remote any actual working knowledge of that subject is, the stronger people’s opinions become. I’m not sure why that is, but it seems to be true, and to have been true since the dawn of recorded history.

For me, I find people who claim to have all the answers to be terrifying, and I don’t want any of them in office or in any other sort of power, as they blithely ignore things like laws on their way to making things “better”. History is full of people performing certain evil in exchange for an uncertain good.

I mentioned Sam Bankman-Fried and “effective altruism” yesterday. He clearly thought any actions that made him rich were justified, since he was the smartest person around and would be the best at deciding how that money would be spent to benefit the world.

Spending your own money on philanthropy can make you an effective altruist, but it brings new meaning to the term “effective” when it turns out you’ve been spending other people’s money.

All the philosophies that justify doing evils today in exchange for some theoretical future good are horrible. More harm has been done in history by people claiming to do good than all of those who knowingly did harm.

“Even the very wisest cannot foresee all ends,” is a good thing to remember.