I officially acknowledge a life and lifestyle rooted in constant learning.
I’ve shifted from learning as a standalone motion. I’ve don’t learn in the flow of working anymore. My flow of work is learning, occurs as learning.
At long last, I’ve started a process of getting paid to learn.
(I remember when a university professor asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I said “I want to get paid to learn.” He laughed boisterously. Years later, here I am doing just that.)
Here’s how I’m engaging this lifestyle.
First, I renew my mind shift daily beyond acknowledging the paradigm of constant learning we’re all in right now. That means extending what I have (e.g., what I’ve learned, what I’ve experienced, etc.) and then building a “constant learning” mind shift on top of that.
(I dislike the word “mindset” because it suggests a fixed point from which to view my self and the world. There’s flexibility in mind shifting.)
Second, I use AI daily to become the only person who does what I do. That means increasing and expanding the effectiveness and efficiency of…well, everything:
- Art
- Body
- Emotions
- Gifts
- Mind
- Science
- Skills
- Talents
- Values
- Etc.
“Everything” isn’t very helpful, though. It’s nonspecific. So.
Third, I focus on four design element categories:
- Self-direction
- Computational logic
- Creative autonomy
- Revolutionary altruism
I wrote about creative autonomy last week, so today I’ll focus on revolutionary altruism (simply because it’s next in the list).
I asked Claude AI for help making me exceptionally good at altruism.
Here’s part of what it said:
Revolutionary altruism goes beyond charity — it aims to change the systems that create suffering in the first place. Here are eight actionable approaches:
1. Adopt Earning-to-Give with Strategic Deployment Deliberately pursue high-income careers not for personal enrichment, but to fund high-leverage causes at scale. The key is pairing earning with rigorous research (via GiveWell, Open Philanthropy, or similar) to ensure donations go where they have the most systemic impact — not just where they feel good.
2. Build or Join a Giving Circle Pool resources with others in a structured giving collective. This amplifies individual capacity, creates accountability, and allows groups to fund projects too large for any single donor — such as policy advocacy, infrastructure grants, or early-stage nonprofits that individual donors typically can’t access.
3. Use Your Professional Expertise as a Direct Resource Lawyers, engineers, doctors, marketers, and technologists can donate skills that nonprofits and movements desperately need but can rarely afford. Organizations like Catchafire and Taproot+ match skilled volunteers to high-need roles. An hour of pro bono legal work may be worth more than a cash donation of equivalent hourly value.
4. Leverage Political Capital Deliberately Write, call, testify, and organize around systemic policy changes — not just reactive petitions. Pick 1–2 issues where policy shifts would dwarf any philanthropic effort (e.g., tax reform, drug pricing, criminal justice) and invest sustained civic energy there. One well-timed letter to the right legislator can outperform years of downstream charity.
5. Radicalize Your Network, Not Just Your Wallet Your sphere of influence is a multiplier. Hosting giving conversations, introducing friends to effective altruism frameworks, or modeling public generosity creates cultural contagion around altruism. Each person you shift toward high-impact giving or action multiplies your own impact many times over.
6. Invest Charitably Through Mission-Aligned Finance Move savings and investments into vehicles that align capital with change — community development financial institutions (CDFIs), ESG funds with genuine screening, or direct investments in social enterprises. This allows your entire financial footprint to work toward your values, not just the portion you donate.
7. Support Movement Infrastructure, Not Just Direct Services The most underfunded layer of social change is often the connective tissue — training organizations, leadership pipelines, advocacy coalitions, and research institutions. Donate to and volunteer with the builders of movements, not just front-line services. Infrastructure investments have compounding returns over decades.
8. Commit to Deliberate Skill-Building for Impact Identify a high-leverage skill — negotiation, data analysis, fundraising, community organizing, public speaking — and invest 6–12 months developing it specifically to deploy in service of a cause. Competence is a force multiplier. A skilled organizer or fundraiser can direct tens of millions of dollars or thousands of people toward transformative ends over a career.
The thread connecting all eight: revolutionary altruism is a practice of leverage — finding the points where your time, money, skills, and relationships produce the greatest systemic return, and committing to those points with discipline and creativity.
I then asked Claude to elaborate on No. 7 in the list.
Here’s part of what it said:
Support movement infrastructure by:
Funding leadership pipelines, training organizations, and advocacy coalitions. Donate to research institutions that study what works. Pay for movement convenings where organizers connect. Cover operating costs (not just programs) for grassroots groups. Invest in shared back-office services — legal, financial, tech — that free frontline organizations to focus on impact.