Doing Good Better
How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference
by William MacAskill · first published 2015
73% recommend27% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Makes the case for effective altruism: money goes much further in the developing world, and some well-meant spending does little. Suits anyone choosing charities or careers who wants evidence-based ways to help.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…(Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner) 13: What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (Randall Munroe) 14: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (Douglas Adams) 15: Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference (William MacAskill) 16: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Edward Tufte) 17: Butterick's Practical Typography (Matthew Butterick)
on “Ask HN: I have no commitments for the next 6 months – what books should I read?” ↗…money many times more effectively. For more info about Effective Altruism, listen to Tim Ferriss[4] and Sam Harris[5] interview the co-founder of Effective Altruism, check out this NYT piece[6], or read Doing Good Better[7]. [1] https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ [2] https://www.givewell.org/ [3] https://www.openphilanthropy.org/ [4] http://tim.blog/2015/11/22/will-macaskill/ [5] https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/being-good-and-doing-...…
on “Pineapple Fund: Donating $86M of Bitcoins to Charity” ↗…is- your long term earnings will absolutely be reduced, though not for the already cited reasons. Essential books to read before going into the non-profit space: * With Charity For All - Ken Stern * Doing Good Better - Bill MacAskill Also, read SSIR, it has the best coverage of emerging trends in the non-profit space: http://ssir.org/ The short answer is- if income is important to you, marginally to significantly…
on “Ask HN: Will being an engineer at a nonprofit reduce your longterm earnings?” ↗…provide a minimal 'charity layer' of such a service (transferring money directly to the right people). If you feel disillusioned by modern charity, effective altruism might interest you. I recently read "Doing Good Better" by Will Macaskill and I recommend it - it puts forward a very compelling case for how to optimise charity-giving. [0]https://www.givedirectly.org/operating-model.html
on “How to rescue people from deep poverty, and why the best methods work” ↗For those interested in Effective Altruism, Will MacAskill's book Doing Good Better is a great read that raises a lot of thought-provoking questions. - https://www.effectivealtruism.org/doing-good-better/
on “Can “effective altruism” maximise the bang for each charitable buck?” ↗I am going to recommend a book to you. Doing Good Better by William MacAskil. It is not a work of right wing “intellectuals”. It is a book I think may cause you to rethink things. In exchange, I will read any book you recommended, Marxist or otherwise.
on “The human cost of the Kindle” ↗…at least 10% of my income to cost-effective charities thanks to the ideas behind the movement. Good books to start with: The Life You Can Save - Peter Singer The Most Good You Can Do - Peter Singer Doing Good Better - William MacAskill
on “Why philosophers could be the ones to transform your 2020” ↗For those who find this interesting and want to spend a bit more time on figuring out the most impactful ways to help in the developing world, I highly recommend you check out Doing Good Better [1] by Will MacAskill. He is part of the Effective Altruism movement and the book does a great job of breaking down the relative impact of different charities, whether to “earn to give” or participate…
on “The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems” ↗…says, invest your money responsibly to make more from it... If you want to then plow some of it back into socially responsible causes, use the same scrutiny. As a reference, I recommend Will MacAskill's Doing Good Better.[1] [1] http://www.amazon.com/Doing-Good-Better-Effective-Difference...
on “Ask HN: Any advice or resources for socially responsible investing?” ↗…if your best trade-off is to do your occupation as a direct way to make the world a better place or to make your living and then donate money to make the world a better place can be found in the book Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work that Matters, and Make Smarter Choices about Giving Back by William MacAskill. In many ways, it is the best career planning advice I have ever…
on “Ask HN: Improving the world as a software developer” ↗…effective charities list (updated a week ago). Recommended listening: Sam Harris interviews the founder of effective altruism. https://samharris.org/podcasts/being-good-and-doing-good/ Recommended reading: Doing Good Better by Will Macaskill.
on “Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?” ↗Fully agreed. William MacAskill's book Doing Good Better is also fantastic; I recommend reading them both as a pair. (MacAskill is one of the founders of EA.)
on “Effective altruism is not effective” ↗…There are many ways to argue the Basecamp decision. Framework themselves had a nice recent email to customers titled "We are not sustainable" that summarizes the conundrum. It's worth reading MacAskill "Doing Good Better" and following the Ethical Altruism thread and the 80,000 hours stuff but with the awareness that the FTX fraud grew in that primordial soup. B-Corps are similarly non-useful as a signal of actual organization…
on “Ask HN: What are ethical companies like Patagonia and some digital counterparts?” ↗I think you would really enjoy Doing Good Better by William MacAskill.
on “The afterlife of used hotel soap” ↗The first 2 questions remind me of the (fantastic) book I'm reading Doing Good Better. This is basically effective altruism. This book argues that a dollar goes a lot farther in the third world. (Obviously.) It also has a great story about how money spent on educational resources can…
on “Tough questions we get asked: 2018 Annual Letter” ↗