“The Absorption Problem” by NickAllardice

I posted this originally on Linkedin and Substack where I write for a more general audience. I think it's highly relevant for here though, and would welcome thoughts, disagreements, builds and implications. I wrote all the substance of this post myself, then used an LLM to refine its expression. A historic amount of money may be about to flow toward the world's problems, but right now that money can’t be absorbed at the effectiveness and scale this moment demands. That's an unpopular thing to say from a sector where it's fashionable to shake your fist at the wealthy for not giving more away. There are reasons to be sympathetic to this perspective: we know more about how to do good than ever before and there's more wealth than at any time in human history… and yet the percentage given by the ultra-wealthy hasn’t budged in decades. But this discourse is damaging and self defeating. First, giving at an ambitious, sustainable scale will never be unlocked via shaming and scolding. Second, in the vast majority of cases the social impact sector simply can’t credibly claim to be able to use significantly more money while doing so effectively, efficiently [...] ---Outline:(03:40) I. Impact rarely grows proportionally with scale(07:35) II. Many of the best interventions have a low ceiling on their potential scale(13:31) III. Speed costs efficiency(18:41) IV. Organizations break as they scale(24:32) Let's get real about scalability profiles --- First published: July 2nd, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uPe8hiHwzM2Yi4nKG/the-absorption-problem --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.