Rick Kleffel talks to William MacAskill, the core of Effective Altruism, discussing EA and his book about it. It's much more pragmatic and entirely reasonable, not about extreme statistics and speculations."
From this point the book is broken into two major sections; “The Five Key Questions of Effective Altruism” and “Effective Altruism in Action.” Macskill’s gift is to make math seem exciting and new by virtue of applying it to the analysis of the effects of charity. He likens charity to battlefield triage, and suggests that we’re best supporting the work of those who help the most people in the most measurable manner. He creates the “QALY” (Quality-Adjusted Life Year) to bring some more solid numbers into action. He likes un-sexy charities such as human-de-worming. He’s absolutely and delightfully unafraid to demolish what we take for granted with statistics.
As MacAskill points out, we’re picky when it comes to spending money – unless we’re giving it away to charity. Then we seem to think that no matter what we do it will come to good. ‘Doing Good Better’ gives readers the tools they need to analyze charitable giving in a reasoned manner. Your favorite charity may not, indeed, probably does not measure up. MacAskill gives readers the double-edged sword of reason. Wield it carefully. You have more power than you know, and with this book, the ability to use it wisely.
Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference [William MacAskill/Gotham]
William MacAskill is ‘Doing Good Better’ [Rick Kleffel/Rainbowlight]
