The last Open Thread was in October 2017, so I thought we were overdue for a new one.
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I agree that interventions like this exist, and I think we identify them by making theoretical cases for & against.
As above, I think cost-effectiveness can useful for determining which intervention to focus on within a specific domain (e.g. "which intervention most increases empathy?" could benefit from a cost-effect analysis).
But for questions about which domain to focus on, I don't think cost-effectiveness gives much lift (e.g. "is it better to focus on increasing empathy or improving nuclear security?" is the kind of question that seems intractable to cost-effect analysis).