I greet you all, members of Lesswrong. First things, I'll roughly introduce myself and my relevance to your community. Then I'll immediately dive into the actual topic of my post, going step by step so that everyone can follow my reasoning. I will deal with several intermediary topics that led me to this way of thinking.

I've first been introduced to this website by the Harry Potter fanfiction Dr Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote, when I was a highschool student. So, first, I'd like to thank you for writing this piece, as it was both very entertaining from the point of view of literature and instructive. I have been trying to apply your lessons ever since. I have been reading Rationality from A.I to Zombies from times to times, dropping it, then trying to read it again. Sometimes I'd see an interesting article on Lesswrong and I'd read it. I never bothered to comment or to become a member until now, as I had nothing interesting to say before. 

That fanfiction is extremely relevant to me, as I believe that you and I share the same objective, Mr Yudowksy, of defeating death itself. I credit you as the co-author of this article, as I consider you my teacher, at least the closest thing to a teacher I ever had. I would like to thank you.

Now, it is time I begin explaining the fundamental problem that every person that wants to save other people needs to consider. The problem is thus : is it even possible to save a single person ? 

I wanted to become a hero, and to save as many people as I possibly could. So, what to do ? I considered becoming a physician. But, being a physician does not mean saving anyone. Considering that there are limited places in universities to become a Doctor, if I become a physician that simply means someone else won't become a physician, so even if I technically save lives through practicing my work there is absolutely no difference if I do it compared to if some anonymous replacement does it. The only way to actually make a difference would be to save people that would have been overlooked by others, because they do not have the money to pay for the treatment or because there is no physician nearby aside from myself. 

The other way to save others would be to work for a charity for free. That is a good way to do so, but again, there are countless volunteers, the impact I would have is not much.

In the end, there are two ways I could maximize my impact : either become an influencial figure that would revolutionize the subject of charity by creating new ways of helping even more people than the current charities do, or earn tons of money so I can donate it. Then the problem would simply be to find the best charity that is not corrupt so I can donate my money and make an impact. 

So, now that I have my longterm goal straight, I also have to think about what to do in the very short term. I can help the people I see with my own eyes, around me, that need immediate help. As an example, if I see someone starving I'll go buy a sandwich at the grocery store and give it to them. If I see someone at risk of freezing, I can get some clothes I have in my house and give them. If I have enough spare money I'll buy some food. But, also and it's very important : I must treat the homeless like people, look at them in the eye, greet them, ask how they are, etc. Being ignored all day by thousands of people is an awful and dehumanizing experience. Simply a smile or a coffee can at least make their day less shitty. 

We now have found out what to do in the very short-term and in the longterm. But now, we have a third problem. The problem is death. 

We can try to save people from car accidents, or from cancer, or from being crippled... But in the end, they all die. We can only manage to postpone death or to reduce the suffering they will go through before their death. 

We could perhaps end aging, or we could even create technology to make us immortals that with a digital brain... But there is a fundamental problem : we are only postponing death, not ending it. The only thing we can do is have people live very long lives, and then die once the earth gets destroyed by the Sun, or when the heat death of the universe happens... There is no way to defeat death, unless we find a way to reverse the death of the universe itself... 

So, what should I be doing ? Are my ideals completely pointless and I am merely inflicting mental torture on myself for something I cannot fundamentally change ? I am not even able to save my closest family members from dying, why am I wasting time trying to save strangers ? 

We cannot save a single person, no matter what we do. We can only postpone the problem. However, maybe that is the wrong focus.

What if, I am doing it to make the world a better place. I am doing it because, if everyone did what I did, went to such lengths, the world would be thousands of times, millions of times, better than it is currently. I cannot save a single person, but perhaps, I can make their lives shine brighter while they still exist.