Introduction to Effective Altruism
What have we found so far? And what does that mean for you?
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This series of talks and articles covers the core ideas of effective altruism. We think it's a great place to start if you're interested in learning more.
… or see the contents below:
What have we found so far? And what does that mean for you?
How should we work out how to do good?
A metaphor-driven introduction to key concepts in effective altruism.
Nick Bostrom explores what "crucial considerations" mean for effective altruism.
Interventions which give us information might be more valuable than they seem.
It's easy to misunderstand effective altruism. This article from 80,000 Hours lays out some of the most common misconceptions and explains what the movement is really about.
We also address many common questions about EA, as well as objections to it, on this page of our site.
Effective altruism often emphasizes the long-term impact of different interventions. These articles explain why.
Reasons to care about the long-term future, and reasons not to.
Caring about the future doesn't mean that we should focus only on narrow interventions.
Selecting which problem to work on is crucial to having the biggest impact possible. These articles discuss a variety of problems, and why we might, or might not, want to focus on them.
What would change if we had advanced artificial intelligence?
Some things we could do to improve the development of artificial intelligence.
What can we do about threats from biotechnology?
Why you might, and might not, want to work on improving animal welfare.
How to have an impact within government.
The cases for and against working on global health.
How valuable is movement growth? And what is the best sort of growth?
80,000 Hours, which provides advice on finding a high-impact career, has also written out a step-by-step guide to finding effective charities.
In the guide, they explain:
Doing Good Better is a short podcast series which introduces effective altruism. It is centred around three questions: Why? How? and What?
In the 80,000 Hours Podcast, Rob Wiblin interviews experts from a range of fields about how best to tackle the world's most pressing problems.
Our YouTube channel features videos from Effective Altruism Global and EAGx conferences around the world.
We've created playlists for talks on a variety of topics; you can also check out a playlist featuring more than 100 talks from female, trans, and non-binary speakers, courtesy of WANBAM.
Subscribe to our Youtube channel
William MacAskill's 2019 TED Talk on the most important problems of our time.
Peter Singer’s classic introduction to effective altruism.
A selection of talks from the EA Global conference series. These cover a variety of concepts and resources related to effective altruism.
www.effectivealtruism.org
www.thelifeyoucansave.org
www.thelifeyoucansave.org
theprecipice.com
www.amazon.com
www.amazon.com
In recent years, the effective altruism community has created a lot of good content. Unfortunately, some of that content can be hard to find. We have therefore put together a series of the best research from recent years, including ideas that aren't as widely accepted than the ideas above.
We designed this section for people who are already familiar with some of the core content, and want to understand the ideas in more depth.
80,000 Hours compare problems in terms of scale, neglectedness, solvability, and personal fit.
80000hours.org
Holden Karnofsky argues that high-risk projects might be the best bets.
www.openphilanthropy.org
Indirect effects: very important, but hard to estimate.
Holden Karnofsky explains why the Open Philanthropy Project devotes unusually large resources to risks from advanced artifical intelligence.
www.openphilanthropy.org
Niel Bowerman explains how to get involved in AI policy work in the United States. Many of his points might also apply to work in other countries).
80000hours.org
David Althaus and Lukas Gloor discuss risks of astronomical suffering and how to mitigate them.
foundational-research.org
Luke Muehlhauser looks at the literature on animal consciousness and moral patienthood.
www.openphilanthropy.org
Lewis Bollard describes how a small group of campaigners convinced over 200 US companies to stop keeping chickens in battery cages.
www.openphilanthropy.org
How can evidence-driven research ensure that effective policies are implemented?
Argues that we should pursue interventions which have not been conclusively proved, but that we should go on collecting evidence beyond that point.
Brian Tomasik argues that we should work together even when we value different things.
foundational-research.org
To do good well, we need to work with others. But how can we coordinate effectively?
80000hours.org
What we might do to maximise the effective altruism community's impact.
An encyclopedia of interesting ideas in effective altruism.
concepts.effectivealtruism.org
The Effective Altruism Forum is an active platform for discussing topics in effective altruism, from scientific research to community building.
Some useful links:
The Effective Altruism Hub has a vast collection of material, including:
See the collection here.