The Most Good You Can Do

🔗Connect

🔼Topic:: Giving

✒️ Note-Making

💡Clarify

🔈 Summary of main ideas

1. Don't be a martyr - It's not about giving every single coin and moment of your life. Your happiness is essential too, even if it's just about maintaining your ability to help others.
2. Donate Rationally - Think how to maximize the effectiveness of your donation, both in the goal chosen, the organization, and the amount. One might even consider switching to a high paying job in order to donate more.
3. Morality requires doing - We can't ignore the moral obligation we face helping others considering our wellbeing (both as a cause and as a goal). Only through moral acting we become moral.

🗒️Relate

⛓ Life lessons, action items

1. Donate 10% of my income

🔍Critique

✅ by following this method, what will happen? You will understand the importance of being an effective altruist, and you will enjoy knowing the extent of good that your donation can make, if done properly.

❌ the logical jumps, holes or simply cases where it is wrong...

🧱 Implementations and limitations of it are... This book is directed towards a western audience, where the economical situation is strong enough that it is justified to donate to global poor rather than to local one.

🗨️Review

💭 my opinions on the book, the writers style... It is a nice summary of the main ideas of effective altruism, with some important nuances

🖼️Outline

📒 Notes

Preface

Effective altruism is a movement of practical ethics, which is based on the assumption that we who were born in abondance have the moral duty to use our resources for the benefit of others. We can distinguish between:

1. Minimal acceptable moral life - using a significant share of our resources to help others
2. Fully moral life - to do the most good we can

The aspects of effective altruism are:

1. Action - EA is about doing, our morality is measured by actual improvements we bring to the world, especially those who need support the most to be moral is to act moral
2. Factual - Action should be focused on the areas with the highest "moral return". Many organizations don't measure or allow to measure their effectiveness Pareto Principle
3. Reason above empathy - our desire to help comes from a rational understanding of our duty, and not an emphatical emotional connection. Empathy This allows us to transcend us vs them borders and help those who are not from our society.

Preface

• we should do the most good we can. Obeying the usual rules about not stealing, cheating, hurting, and killing is not enough, or at least not enough for those of us who have the great good fortune to live in material comfort, (Location 52)
• Living a minimally acceptable ethical life involves using a substantial part of our spare resources to make the world a better place. Living a fully ethical life involves doing the most good we can. (Location 54)
• Effective altruists don’t see a lot of point in feeling guilty. They prefer to focus on the good they are doing. (Location 62)
• effective altruism is a way of giving meaning to our own lives and finding fulfillment in what we do. (Location 71)
• we can expand our moral horizons, reach decisions based on a broad form of altruism, and employ our reason to assess evidence about the likely consequences of our actions. (Location 81)

Part 1 - effective Altruism

What is effective Altruism

As said previously, it is to make the best use of our resources to make the most good. By resources we usually mean money, but influence and physical body can also be considered. That's why it is not illogical to strive for a high paying job just to be able to donate more money, than doing a volunteering job elsewhere, with perhaps a lower effect.

By most good we usually mean a Utilitarianism view of reducing suffering and increase pleasure, usually by preventing death and improving the quality of life of not just humans, but animals as well.

All this is in contrast with normal philanthropy, which is more focused on the warm glow Signaling of giving, which is the benefit for the self through the act of donation, regardless of the actual effects of the donation. It is just the benefit of signaling that we are virtuous people, rather than actually being ones form vs essence. Meanwhile EA is about doing good, regardless of whether we are noticed or not. The act of doing good is what provides us with the sense of satisfaction.

What Is Effective Altruism?

• “a philosophy and social movement which applies evidence and reason to working out the most effective ways to improve the world.” (Location 138)
• If doing the most you can for others means that you are also flourishing, then that is the best possible outcome for everyone. (Location 142)
• Effective altruists will feel the pull of helping an identifiable child from their own nation, region, or ethnic group but will then ask themselves if that is the best thing to do. (Location 168)
• Effective altruists do not discount suffering because it occurs far away or in another country or afflicts people of a different race or religion. They agree that the suffering of animals counts too and generally agree that we should not give less consideration to suffering just because the victim is not a member of our species. (Location 179)

A Movement Emerges

We need to rethink charities, to create a standard of transparency and measurement of effectiveness. This has lead to the creation of the Givewell foundation and the Center for effective altruism

A Movement Emerges

• There is no logical stopping place, I suggested, until we reach the point of marginal utility—that is, the point at which by giving more, one would cause oneself and one’s family to lose as much as the recipients of one’s aid would gain. (Location 236)

Part 2 - Doing the Most Good

Living Modestly to Give More

The goal is not to be a martyr, nor to live in a cardboard box. Even in the most practical sense, our happiness is essential to our ability to contribute. A depressed person without any means won't be able to earn enough to donate. However, we can be more reflective on what actually is essential to our happiness. You'll be surprised on the lack of connection between spendings and happiness. It is our social ties, and simple pleasures that are essential, which means that we can cut back on any unnecessary luxurious buy, but we can still enjoy the occasional new iphone, eating ice cream and going out to the movies. Minimalism

The goal is to not be satisfied with giving 10%, but to strive to 30%-50%. But also remember that you don't have to be rich to give, and that any giving is better than none.

Living Modestly to Give More

• “If we can prevent something bad, without sacrificing anything of comparable significance, we ought to do it.” (Location 389)
• The best way of maximizing the amount you can give will depend on your individual circumstances and skills, but trying to live without at least a modest level of comfort and convenience is likely to be counterproductive. (Location 403)
• Everyone has boundaries. If you find yourself doing something that makes you bitter, it is time to reconsider. (Location 412)
• by working to better any one society we increase the chance of betterment for all societies. (Location 520)
• Effective altruism is something for people of many divergent backgrounds and for people who, while living in affluent societies, earn no more and sometimes even less than the average income in their society. (Location 521)

Earn More to Give More

If you're debating between being a charity worker and a banker that earns a lot of money and then donates, think about your marginal utility. By not being a charity worker, you are giving your place to the next runner up, which will likely be almost as good as you, so it is not a huge loss, as long as there are plenty of applicants. In a high earning job, it is very unlikely that the runner up will donate as much as you, and that's why you would a much overall influence if you strive to earn more. Just don't treat yourself as a "money machine" for donations, remember the importance of your happiness. Competitive Advantage

Other Ethical Careers

Depending on your skills and talents, it might be worth while for you to pursue a more ethical role such as a researcher, Public worker, or run a charity, but you should be aware of the small chances of succeeding in each sector.

Other Ethical Careers

• The answer to the question, What career should I follow in order to do the most good? will depend on your interests, talents, and character. (Location 885)

Giving a part of Yourself

Not all donations have to be monetary. The extreme example is kidney donation, which is relatively harmless for you, but has a great benefit for someone else. However due to the nature of the donation, it is not surprising why it is so uncommon, and not to be expected from everyone, compared to regenerative components like blood.

Part 3 - Motivation and Justification

Is Love All We Need

What motivates effective altruists? It's not a sense of connection to humankind, nor is it empathy, because both are mostly based on our close community, those we share a strong connection with, and not random strangers. The goal therefore is not to increase our empathy, but rather acknowledge that human lives have equal importance regardless of our relations to them.

This rule of rationality is hard to implement, since our emotions are always involved in our actions, but it is still a goal worth pursuing.

Is Love All We Need?

• We can have cognitive empathy with thousands of children, but it is very hard to feel emotional empathy for so many people whom we cannot even identify as individuals. (Location 1016)
• “Our best hope for the future is not to get people to think of all humanity as family—that’s impossible. It lies, instead, in an appreciation of the fact that, even if we don’t empathize with distant strangers, their lives have the same value as the lives of those we love.” (Location 1049)
• if we were purely rational beings, it would motivate us to action. Human beings are not purely rational beings, so although accepting the dictate of reason will give us a motive to act in the way the maxim of benevolence prescribes, we are likely to have other motives, some of which will support it and some that may conflict with it. (Location 1081)

One among Many

It is not that effective altruists try to eliminate emotions, but rather they are passionate about helping in a rational way Morality is both rational and emotional Emotional Aikido. Rational inquiry helps us avoid misguided emotions that stem from our tribal nature, and focus on the big picture.

One Among Many

• They are able to detach themselves from more personal considerations that otherwise dominate the way in which we live. This detachment is not total, but it does make an important difference to how they live, (Location 1102)

Altruism and Happiness

Altruism is not about sacrificing something for the greater good because:

1. Giving makes us happy - spending money on ourselves usually leads to the Hedonic Treadmill, where increases in earning doesn't lead to more happiness. In contrasts, giving to others has proven to be beneficial to our wellbeing
2. Giving is in their interests - altruists don't "give up" on their interests because the wellbeing of others is part of their interests. It is not our of duty, but rather passion that drives them to help others, so overall this act improves their wellbeing and sense of fulfillment

Altruism and Happiness

• it wasn’t a sacrifice at all because his sense of engagement in making the world a better place means far more to him than new gadgets or a bigger house. (Location 1259)
• Too often we equate making a sacrifice with doing something that causes us to have less money. Money, however, is not an intrinsic good. (Location 1266)
• Although using our income to buy more stuff does not make us happier, it turns out that using it to help others does. (Location 1290)
• The most solid basis for self-esteem is to live an ethical life, that is, a life in which one contributes to the greatest possible extent to making the world a better place. (Location 1330)
• We do not have to make self-sacrifice a necessary element of altruism. We can regard people as altruists because of the kind of interests they have rather than because they are sacrificing their interests. (Location 1344)

Part 4 - Choosing Causes and Organizations

Domestic or Global

There are two main reasons why donating globally is preferred than donating locally Inequality:

1. They are worse off - global poverty is much more severe than local poverty in developed countries
2. It's cheaper to help - the cost effectiveness of helping the global poor is on a completely different scale, so if you can help 10,100,1000 times more if you donate the same amount to global rather than local poverty, why shouldn't you?

Domestic or Global?

• Governments arguably have the responsibility to look after their own citizens first, but individuals have no such responsibility. (Location 1410)
• we will do more good by donating to organizations working to help people living in extreme poverty in poor nations. (Location 1465)

Are Some Goals Better Objectively than Others

ask yourself not which goal is the most important or urgent, but rather where you could make the biggest difference, and by difference we mean the improvement of human lives.

Difficult Comparisons

It is hard to measure improvement of human lives. While methods such as QALY attempt to quantify improvements in the medical field, how do you compare curing blindness and education?

Protecting Animals and Nature

Do animals matter? Humans tend to believe in speciesism, a version of racism towards non human beings, that is not based on any other fact. Even justifications of intelligence fall short when we see how we treat mentally disabled humans vs intelligent primates. We can imagine a case of a small discomfort for saving millions of dogs which is morally worthy, so the equilibrium is somewhere out there between animal and human suffering. This is regardless of the fact that the animal industry is one of the biggest contributors to global warming, which is in the interest of humanity to reduce.

Reducing Animal Suffering and Protecting Nature

• destroying nature can have negative consequences for an indefinite number of future generations. (Location 1855)

Choosing the Best Organization

A common method of testing an organization efficiency is to use random control trails Testing, which compare an exposed group to a control group with similar attributes except for the intervention. It is better to use external estimators since they are less susceptible to corruption and bias

Preventing Human Extinction

While we focus on short term benefits, what about existential threats like super intelligent AI, nuclear war, epidemic, etc.

The problem with those is that it is hard to measure the likelihood of the event, and the effectiveness of steps against it. However, the more we convert people towards effective altruism, the more likelihood funds will be directed into these threats.