While well intentioned, a utilitarian approach to maximizing expected value of the greater good (or minimizing suffering) has unintended side effects. Actions taken in service of effective altruism can cause harm (aid in the form of misquito nets to reduce malaria leading to overfishing, financial aid bostering oppressive governments, etc.). Deciding what is best for humanity (combating threat of AGI, colonization of space) becomes increasingly more abstract and longtermism leads to justificationism.
Read The Deaths of Effective Altruism from Wired.
See also:
- Many errors come from false precision about the benefits and hardships humans experience
- The further from the self, the less real it feels