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Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: A guided cause prioritisation flowchart, published by JackM on January 3, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Overview I have previously written about the importance of making it as easy as possible for EAs to make a fully-informed decision on preferred cause area, given the potentially astronomical differences in value between cause areas. Whilst one piece of feedback was sceptical about the claim that these vast expected value differences exist, generally feedback agreed that the idea of making cause prioritisation easier, for example by highlighting key considerations that have the biggest effect on choice of preferred cause area, could be high impact. In light of this I have decided to progress this idea by putting together a first draft cause prioritisation flowchart designed to guide people through the process of cause prioritisation. The flowchart would ideally be accompanied by guidance assisting making informed decisions throughout the flowchart. I haven’t finalised this guidance, although present a sample for one particular decision in the flowchart. At this point I am attempting a proof of concept rather than delivering a final product, and so would welcome feedback on both the idea and the preliminary attempt. Introducing the flowchart In the following section you can see my draft flowchart. The flowchart asks individuals ethical and empirical questions that I view as most important in determining which cause area they should focus on. Only cause areas that are accepted as important by a non-negligible proportion of the EA community are included in the flowchart. In addition, some foundational assumptions common to EA are made, including a consequentialist view of ethics in which wellbeing is what has intrinsic value. A key component of a final flowchart would be accompanying guidance to help individuals make informed decisions as they progress through the flowchart. I have not put together all of this guidance at this stage, however as part of the proof of concept I have attempted to illustrate what this might look like for the “Can we influence the future?” question. My vision for a final flowchart would be being able to click on each box to be guided to easily-digestible reading enabling an informed choice on how to proceed. In my view, some strengths of this flowchart compared to the main previous attempt include: It includes an up-to-date set of cause areas: the previous attempt that I have come across is, in my opinion, slightly out of date in that it excludes options that have fairly recently entered the mainstream of EA, such as investing for the future. The previous attempt also includes some cause areas that aren’t typically considered high impact by EAs today, such as education or human rights. It includes more nuances relevant to longtermist cause areas: my flowchart considers nuances such as the consideration of whether or not one thinks that the future is likely to be good. It has been suggested/hinted that not believing that the future is likely to be good may lead one away from longtermism as one would not want to prolong a bad future. However, there is a class of cause areas that could be said to broadly sit under “Improving quality of the future” that would remain robust to this view, and indeed other views that some people think invalidate longtermism such as a person-affecting view of population ethics. It includes (very incomplete) guidance that assists with making decisions along the flowchart: my vision for a final flowchart is one that is accompanied by guidance helping one make an informed decision throughout the flowchart. This feels like an essential part of any flowchart - without it one is just making gut judgements on very complex questions for which much discussion has already taken place. This is my main bone to pick with...