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“What do-gooders lack is not happiness but innocence. They lack that happy blindness that allows most people, most of the time, to shut their minds to what is unbearable. Do-gooders have forced themselves to know, and keep on knowing, that everything they do affects other people, and that sometimes (though not always) their joy is purchased with other people's joy. And, remembering that, they open themselves to a sense of unlimited, crushing responsibility.” �

— Larissa MacFarquhar, Strangers Drowning

“What do-gooders lack is not happiness but innocence. They lack that happy blindness that allows most people, most of the time, to shut their minds to what is unbearable. Do-gooders have forced themselves to know, and keep on knowing, that everything they do affects other people, and that sometimes (though not always) their joy is purchased with other people's joy.”

(brief pause)

Remembering that, they can no longer continue to live ignoring the unbearable—they feel an intense urge to dedicate their lives to helping others.

When there is so much suffering, injustice, and death in our world, and when there will be far more in the years, decades, and centuries to come if we as a society don’t get our act together, it can be overwhelming to think about the huge mess that is the world we live in, and what we can do to help.

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My background

[NEEDS TO BE CHANGED]

I got involved with local activism and social justice work in tenth grade, when I had a really tough time and struggled with severe depression and anxiety coming to terms with my sexual orientation, attitudes towards the LGBTQ community, especially from religious communities, and the implications these would have on the rest of my life.

In the process of getting through this I realized that there were countless others out there going through situations similar to, and much worse than mine—I was in a fairly liberal neighborhood in Toronto, Canada and had very accepting friends and family (which I assumed wouldn’t be the case due to internalized stereotypes about the lack of progressiveness of immigrants, even my own mother).

Once I felt good enough about myself I felt an urge to start supporting others, and wanted to make sure that others wouldn’t also have to go through intense suffering caused by the failings of our society.

And when I started this journey, I began learning more about large-scale issues and just how unjust our world really is.

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What do we do?

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Effective Altruism

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With limited resources, �how can we do the most good?

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1. Prioritize between different causes

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Causes don’t deserve support.

People do.

Being fair to people requires being unfair to causes: �picking the best opportunities to support people, rather than

dedicating time and money to all important causes.

Centre for Effective Altruism. YouTube (2017).

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$500

Centre for Effective Altruism. YouTube (2017).

Suppose you have $1,000 that you want to donate, and you’re torn by two causes that you care about:

helping to fund screenings to detect lung cancer, and funding insecticide-treated bednets to protect children from malaria.

What if you treated the causes equally, and gave $500 to each?

$500 is enough to scan about two people for lung cancer. In expectation, doing this gives people about 10 additional days of life.

At the same time, $500 is enough to produce and distribute 50 bednets. Each bednet usually protects 2 people, often children under the age of 5, from getting malaria for 3 years.

So with $500, you can protect around 100 children for 3 years from a disease that is fatal, debilitating, and tragically common. In expectation, doing this gives people multiple additional years of life.

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Centre for Effective Altruism. YouTube (2017).

Pienson, B. S., et al. AH&DB (2014).

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Equally supporting all the causes we care about is unfair.

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2. How to prioritize between different causes?

?

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Which increases school attendance the most?

Unconditional cash transfers to families (with children)
Deworming children (treating a parasitic disease)
Merit-based scholarships
Free uniforms

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Baird, S, et al. Harvard University (2011).

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Baird, S, et al. Harvard University (2011).

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Baird, S, et al. Harvard University (2011).

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Baird, S, et al. Harvard University (2011).

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Pay most attention to reason and evidence, rather than just going by intuition.

Our intuition is heavily influenced �by what problems are most visible to us.

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But many of the worst injustices in the world are suffered silently and distantly — �we need to look for them, if we want to �help end them.

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Our intuitions are great for many things.

But they’re terrible at dealing with numbers – especially large numbers.

A problem that affects thousands of people might feel similar to one that affects billions, but between them, there’s a world of difference.

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a single death is a tragedy,

a million deaths is a statistic

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a single death is a tragedy,

a million deaths is a statistic

million tragedies

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So, to find better opportunities to help, �we need to look for and explicitly consider factors that make causes better or worse opportunities to help.

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Three features of especially promising opportunities to improve the world:

Scale

Neglectedness

Solvability

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SCALE

(Number affected & severity)

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Example

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Climate change: likely to �kill millions and displace more than 100 million by 2050

ALS: likely to kill 180 thousand (rough estimate) by 2050

World Health Organization (2018).

ALS News Today.

Rigaud. K. K., et al. World Bank (2018).

Climate change is estimated to cause 150,000 deaths per year already, and it’s likely to kill millions more in the coming years, displacing more than 100 million individuals by 2050.

In contrast, ALS is expected to kill roughly 180,000 people by 2050.

So when it comes to scale—how many are affected, and how severely—climate change is a more important issue than ALS. Not because ALS isn’t important—ALS causes patients and those who love them to suffer greatly. But because our world has many more tragedies than we have lifetimes to address, and, scale suggests, allowing larger problems to continue on their current paths would be turning our backs to even worse tragedies. We cannot avoid choosing between tragedies, but we can at least take care to choose the lesser tragedies, and considering scale helps us do this.

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SOLVABILITY

(Likelihood of success/impact)

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Example

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NEGLECTEDNESS

(How little attention is already given)

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# of humans in a year, U.S.

Example

Human & Farm Animal Well-being in the U.S.

# of land animals in

factory farms in a year, U.S.

Donations to human-

centered causes, U.S.

Donations to non-human-centered causes, U.S.

Welty, J. Duke University (2007).

Giving USA (2016).

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Animal Charity Evaluators (2016).

Farm vs. Pet Animals

As an example, consider farmed animal well-being in comparison to pet animals. Less than 3% of philanthropic funding goes towards non-human animals. Of this 3%, most of the money goes toward shelters for pets, while many more animals are mistreated in factory farms. So farmed animals are vastly more neglected than pet animals, while they are mistreated on a much larger scale.

Another important point to note: neglected causes often look weird. By definition, neglected causes are the ones that not everyone is talking about, and they often aim at improving the well-being of people or beings who aren’t usually given attention.

It’s not surprising that when we think about which members of society are given the shortest end of the stick, those who are not able to advocate for themselves or given much attention by default, like people in extreme poverty halfway across the world, animals and future people, are very strong candidates.

So, when an idea about improving the world is unintuitive or weird, it can be especially important to take it seriously.��So to check your understanding of scale, tractability, and neglectedness, in your groups, spend 3 minutes discussing causes that you think differ on scale, tractability, and neglectedness, ideally that are similar to each other in other domains. ��3 min timer

On top of this framework for comparing causes, what are other considerations that may help us do good, better?

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3. Who ought we care about?

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Our community,

country,

ethnic/identity group

All living humans

(the whole world)

All living �sentient beings

(including non-human animals)

Self, family,

friends

Future Generations

By default, most people care and spend most of our time thinking about ourselves, our friends, and our family.

Many of us also advocate for causes benefiting our local communities, communities of identities we hold, and our country.

But do the lives of people halfway across the world, of a different race, nationality, or religion matter any less than those of people within our conventional boundaries?

I don’t think so. When we include all humans in our circle of caring, we may realize that, in comparison to local issues, many global issues affect many more people, much more severely, and are much easier to address.

Similarly, are humans the only species worthy of moral concern, or the only beings whose suffering and well-being matter? When we include tens of billions of animals or more in our circle of caring, we see how large and neglected animal welfare concerns are.

And lastly, how should we think about the well-being of future generations, who will have to deal with the consequences of our society’s myopic actions, but have no say in the political decision making that will impact their quality of life, and even their likelihood of existing?

It is for these reasons that global poverty eradication, animal welfare, and improving the long-term future are such high-priority causes within Effective Altruism.

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Why do some focus on the long-term?

Future humans are morally important.

The circumstances of people’s births (including when they are born) do not lessen their importance.

There could easily be an immense number of people in the future.

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GPI - University of Oxford. YouTube (2020).

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GPI - University of Oxford. YouTube (2020).

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future

GPI - University of Oxford. YouTube (2020).

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Ways to improve the long-term future

Reducing Existential Threats
Trajectory Change
Government/Policy Work
Global Priorities Research
Advocacy/Field Building/ Increasing Awareness

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4. Other considerations for making decisions

...

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Median American Income: $33,000

How well off are we, from a global perspective?

Real Median Personal Income in the United States. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (2018).

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Counterfactual thinking: �what would happen otherwise?

Another way of thinking that can help us better assess the impact of our actions is asking ourselves, “what would happen otherwise, if I don’t do this?”

For example, maybe you’re thinking about becoming a doctor in the US to help people. It might seem intuitive that you’ll be helping all of your patients.

But many talented students want to become doctors. So if you don’t become a doctor, it’s likely that someone who’s almost as good as you would be helping these patients anyway, as a part of a healthcare system that already offers pretty high life expectancies.

In contrast, if you become a doctor in a place that has a shortage of doctors, or work in some other area with a shortage of skilled, altruistic people, you’ll be able to support more people who otherwise would not have received support.

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Opportunity cost: What is the best thing you could have done instead?

Another important consideration is the opportunity cost of our actions. It’s useful to ask ourselves: how does the value of my action compare to the value of the best thing I could have done instead?

the current pandemic offers a grim but useful example of the concept of opportunity cost being applied. When hospitals are overwhelmed by the number of patients seeking treatment and do not have the resources to treat everyone, they have to make harsh but necessary trade-offs to decide how to use their limited resources. They often have to prioritize based on who is most likely to survive, and who has the most years of healthy life to live if they are saved.

These trade-offs are necessary not because every tragedy isn’t worth avoiding, but because we can’t avoid every tragedy, so if we don’t allow the least terrible tragedies to happen, we’ll be allowing worse ones to happen.

If we want to help as much as we can, we shouldn’t just take the effects of our actions at face value—we should compare our actions to what else we could have done with our limited time, money, and careers, and pick the very best option.

We’re always making trade-offs, whether they’re intentional or not, so it’s best to be cognizant of them, and make them in a way we endorse.

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Doing good sustainably

Take care of yourself, too.

Doing good over a lifetime requires

living sustainably.

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We’re not perfect, but we can strive to do better

“Effective Altruist”

A person trying to be effective at altruism

Aim high, even if you fall short.

Centre for Effective Altruism. YouTube (2017).

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Keep learning.

�

Keep looking for even better opportunities �to improve the world.

Centre for Effective Altruism. YouTube (2017).

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Recap

It’s important to prioritize between causes
A framework for prioritizing causes
Expanding our compassion
Making decisions with EA in mind

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What you can do

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What you can do

Career: 80000hours.org

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What you can do

Effective donations

Founders Pledge (2020).

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What you can do

Donation pledge: givingwhatwecan.org

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What you can do

Learn more

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Multiply your impact.
Practicing EA is more fun and engaging with friends, family, and community.
Improve each others’ beliefs through conversations.
1-on-1s + small discussions > �mass outreach.

Talk to others about EA!

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Next Steps

Practice critical thinking + strong reasoning/judgment about how to do most good

Look for things people (within and outside the EA community might be getting wrong or missing.

Learn, Share thoughts + Get involved with community/group
Be intentional about your goals + Don’t be on autopilot.

Final thoughts on next steps:

Perhaps the most important skill to develop is the ability to think critically, and develop strong judgment and reasoning about how you can do the most good. In practice I think this can look like brainstorming crucial considerations that could change your bottom line, actively seeking out information/arguments that could change your mind, and practicing registering predictions and falsifying your beliefs.

Another way to practice this is to look for things people (within and outside the EA community) might be getting wrong or missing, and also make the steelman for why seeming mistakes might be right.

Learn about topics of interest, share your thoughts + get involved with the community - this conference offers a great opportunity to chat with others, I recommend reading and writing on the EA Forum, Lesswrong, and the AI Alignment Forum, and getting involved with local/university group events and organizing.

And finally, be intentional about your goals, and don’t be on autopilot. Take actions to resolve your uncertainties and realize your goals - things happen much faster when you actively try to address what’s blocking you

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“There is one circumstance in which the extremity of do-gooders looks normal, and that is war. In wartime — or in a crisis so devastating that it resembles war, such as an earthquake or a hurricane — … what in ordinary times would be thought weirdly zealous becomes expected…”

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“There is one circumstance in which the extremity of do-gooders looks normal, and that is war. In wartime — or in a crisis so devastating that it resembles war, such as an earthquake or a hurricane — … what in ordinary times would be thought weirdly zealous becomes expected…”

Some feel that such a crisis “was the time when they were most vividly alive, in comparison with which the rest of life seems dull and lacking in purpose…”

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“There is one circumstance in which the extremity of do-gooders looks normal, and that is war. In wartime — or in a crisis so devastating that it resembles war, such as an earthquake or a hurricane — … what in ordinary times would be thought weirdly zealous becomes expected…”

Some feel that such a crisis “was the time when they were most vividly alive, in comparison with which the rest of life seems dull and lacking in purpose…”

For do-gooders, “it is always wartime… there are always those as urgently in need as the victims of battle…” �

— Larissa MacFarquhar, Strangers Drowning

There is so much that is wrong with our world. If we want to help, we must look for, and not let ourselves forget, the silent atrocities that go on everyday.

We must think carefully about how to prioritize our efforts, because finding the best ways to help is really hard, and we only have so much time—not enough for all of the causes worth dedicating our lives to.

And we must act, because there is so much to do.

Because every second that we don’t, too many beings suffer, and our future is further endangered.

When we recognize this, we might feel overwhelmed.

For me, joining the effective altruism community—a community committed to ending atrocities as effectively as we can—helped turn my paralysis into resolve.

I have found getting involved with the community to be deeply empowering and uplifting.

And I hope you do too, because every day, there are strangers drowning, and every day, we have the opportunity to reach out a hand.

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Questions

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Multiply your impact.
Apply to the Future Fellowship - Due tonight! bit.ly/ea-mitfellowship
Sign-in to receive more updates about other programming! bit.ly/eamit-f22-signin

Express interest in a coffee chat

Get involved!

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References (1/2)

MacFarquhar, L. (2016). Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and

the Urge to Help. Penguin Books.

Centre for Effective Altruism. (2017, Apr. 14). Introduction to EA | Ajeya Cotra |

EAGxBerkeley 2016 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/48VAQtGmfWY.

Pyenson, B. S., et al. (2014). Offering lung cancer screening to high-risk medicare

beneficiaries saves lives and is cost-effective: an actuarial analysis. American health

& drug benefits, 7(5), 272–282.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4163779/.

Baird, S, et al. (2011). Worms at Work: Long-Run Impacts of Child Health Gains. Working

paper, Harvard University.

Yale Effective Altruism. (2020, Apr. 7). [Facebook update].

https://www.facebook.com/yaleEA/posts/1598166520354210.

Climate Change and Health. (2018). World Health Organization.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health.

How common is ALS? ALS News Today. https://alsnewstoday.com/how-common-is-als/.

Slides 2 & 61:

Slides 10-12 & 53-54:

Slides 16-19:

Slide 24:

Slide 29:

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References (2/2)

Rigaud. K. K., et al. (2018). Groundswell : Preparing for Internal Climate Migration. World

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29461.

Giving USA 2016 Report Highlights. (2016). Giving USA.

https://store.givingusa.org/collections/older-versions/products/giving-usa-2016

-report-highlights?variant=34402821001.

Welty, J. (2007, Winter). Humane Slaughter Laws. Law and Contemporary Problems,

70(1), 175+.

Why Farmed Animals? (2016, Nov.). Animal Charity Evaluators.

https://animalcharityevaluators.org/donation-advice/why-farmed-animals/.

Global Priorities Institute - University of Oxford. (2020, June 5). What we owe the

future | Will MacAskill [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/vCpFsvYI-7Y.

Real Median Personal Income in the United States. (2018). Economic Research, Federal

Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N.

Halstead, J, and Ackva, J. (2020, Feb. 10). Climate & Lifestyle Report. Founders Pledge.

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