hackertube.io

A Selfish Argument for Making the World a Better Place – Egoistic Altruism

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Microeconomics & behavioral economicsPhilosophy & ethicsFuturism & technology and society

What it is

Kurzgesagt makes a selfish case for improving the world, arguing that helping people far away raises prosperity and innovation for everyone, including yourself. The animated video frames this as egoistic altruism and positive-sum cooperation.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters link it to argue for cooperation and engagement over isolation, and as an accessible statement of positive-sum thinking.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2018, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “There is a video [0] I love that explains an argument for this well.”

    Argument that more participants improve a field

    axolotlgod, 2022-05 · Strong recommendation · in “Finding Van Tran, who brought female representation to games”

  2. “See also”

    Selfish argument for improving the world

    arikr, 2018-05 · Recommendation · in “Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone”

  3. “There's actually a very interesting kurzgesagt video on the subject”

    Argues for engagement over isolation of countries

    baby, 2018-12 · Recommendation · in “Huawei Could Divide the World”

  4. “I'm quite fond of the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt”

    Kurzgesagt video on selfish altruism

    shagie, 2022-01 · Recommendation · in “Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: altruism, kurzgesagt, global development, economics, cooperation

Also recommended by the same people