Over the years, we’ve had many exchanges along these lines: Q: Why can’t you [research more charities / research more causes / put more effort into marketing and outreach?] A: We don’t have enough people; we’re already stretched thin with our current priorities. Q: What if you had enough money to hire more people? A:…
The GiveWell Blog
All posts by Holden
Excited altruism
Critics of effective altruism worry that we’re trying to choose causes based on calculations about how to help the world as much as possible, rather than based on what causes excite us. They worry that we therefore won’t be fully engaged in, or committed to, the causes we pick. (More) I think such people fundamentally…
Effective altruism
We’re proud to be part of the nascent “effective altruist” movement. Effective altruism has been discussed elsewhere (see Peter Singer’s TED talk and Wikipedia); this post gives our take on what it is and isn’t. What is effective altruism?To us, “effective altruism” means trying to do as much good as possible with each dollar and…
Passive vs. rational vs. quantified
We’re excited about the project of making giving more analytical, more intellectual, and overall more rational. At the same time, we have mixed feelings about the project of quantifying good accomplished: of converting the impacts of all gifts into “cost per life saved” or “cost per DALY” type figures that can then be directly compared…
Responses to objections on cash transfers
Since our recommendation of GiveDirectly last year, we’ve seen a fair amount of pushback and skepticism. We’ve recently been speaking with donors who have supported our other top charities – and not GiveDirectly – to get a better sense of what their reservations are. This post lays out what we see as the most common…
Empowerment and catastrophic risk
In previous posts, I have: Laid out the view that in general, further economic development and general human empowerment are likely to be substantially net positive, and are likely to lead to improvement on many dimensions in unexpected ways. Listed possible global catastrophic risks that provide a potential counterpoint to this view, while also noting…