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Nov 28, 2023
acx

In Continued Defense Of Effective Altruism

30 min • 4,526 words • 922 comments • 389 likes • podcast (19 min)
Scott Alexander defends effective altruism by highlighting its major accomplishments and arguing that its occasional missteps are outweighed by its positive impact on the world. Longer summary
Scott Alexander defends effective altruism (EA) against recent criticisms, highlighting its accomplishments in global health, animal welfare, AI safety, and other areas. He argues that EA has saved around 200,000 lives, equivalent to ending gun violence, curing AIDS, and preventing a 9/11-scale attack in the US. Scott contends that EA's achievements are often overlooked because they focus on less publicized causes, and that the movement's occasional missteps are minor compared to its positive impact. He emphasizes that EA is a coalition of people who care about logically analyzing important causes, whether broadly popular or not, and encourages readers to investigate and support the most beneficial causes. Shorter summary
Dec 22, 2019
ssc

A Maximally Lazy Guide To Giving To Charity In 2019

8 min • 1,213 words • 181 comments • podcast (9 min)
Scott Alexander offers a guide for lazy people to donate to effective charities, ranging from easy options like EA Funds to more specific recommendations in various cause areas. Longer summary
Scott Alexander provides a guide for people who want to donate to effective charities but are very lazy. He suggests donating to EA Funds as the easiest option, which allows experts to allocate funds to the best charities. For those with slightly more energy, he recommends checking charity-evaluating organizations like GiveWell, Animal Charity Evaluators, and others. He also mentions specific charities in areas like AI safety, climate change, and election science. For the truly skeptical, he suggests GiveDirectly, which gives money directly to poor people in Africa. Shorter summary
Jan 10, 2016
ssc

Slow But Steady

3 min • 444 words • 236 comments
The post highlights the effectiveness of bednets in combating malaria in Africa, citing impressive statistics and encouraging donations to continue this progress. Longer summary
The post discusses the significant impact of malaria control efforts, particularly the use of insecticide-treated bednets, in Africa between 2000 and 2015. It cites a Nature study and comments from Giving What We Can, highlighting that bednets have prevented around 450 million cases of malaria and contributed to saving 6.2 million lives. The author expresses enthusiasm about humanity's progress against malaria and shares that they donated a thousand bednets, encouraging others to donate to the Against Malaria Foundation. Shorter summary
Jan 04, 2015
ssc

Ethics Offsets

10 min • 1,454 words • 537 comments
Scott Alexander examines the concept of 'ethics offsets', exploring its applications and ethical implications from simple cases to extreme scenarios. Longer summary
This post explores the concept of 'ethics offsets', where people compensate for ethically questionable actions by performing good deeds. Scott starts with simple examples like carbon offsets, then moves to more complex scenarios involving vegetarianism and murder. He discusses the ethical implications and potential issues with this approach, such as the problem of universalizability and the crossing of moral boundaries. The post raises questions about the limits of ethical offsetting and whether it can justify any action if the positive impact is deemed greater than the negative. Shorter summary