Present Books In Pursuance Of Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference

Original Title:	Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference
ISBN:	1592409105 (ISBN13: 9781592409105)
Edition Language:	English

Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference Hardcover | Pages: 272 pages

Narration Supposing Books Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference

Most of us want to make a difference. We donate our time and money to charities and causes we deem worthy, choose careers we consider meaningful, and patronize businesses and buy products we believe make the world a better place. Unfortunately, we often base these decisions on assumptions and emotions rather than facts. As a result, even our best intentions often lead to ineffective—and sometimes downright harmful—outcomes. How can we do better? While a researcher at Oxford, trying to figure out which career would allow him to have the greatest impact, William MacAskill confronted this problem head on. He discovered that much of the potential for change was being squandered by lack of information, bad data, and our own prejudice. As an antidote, he and his colleagues developed effective altruism, a practical, data-driven approach that allows each of us to make a tremendous difference regardless of our resources. Effective altruists believe that it’s not enough to simply do good; we must do good better. At the core of this philosophy are five key questions that help guide our altruistic decisions: How many people benefit, and by how much? Is this the most effective thing I can do? Is this area neglected? What would have happened otherwise? What are the chances of success, and how good would success be? By applying these questions to real-life scenarios, MacAskill shows how many of our assumptions about doing good are misguided. For instance, he argues one can potentially save more lives by becoming a plastic surgeon rather than a heart surgeon; measuring overhead costs is an inaccurate gauge of a charity’s effectiveness; and, it generally doesn’t make sense for individuals to donate to disaster relief. MacAskill urges us to think differently, set aside biases, and use evidence and careful reasoning rather than act on impulse. When we do this—when we apply the head and the heart to each of our altruistic endeavors—we find that each of us has the power to do an astonishing amount of good.

Describe Containing Books Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference

Title	:	Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference
Author	:	William MacAskill
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 272 pages
Published	:	July 28th 2015 by Avery
Categories	:	Nonfiction. Philosophy. Economics. Self Help

Rating Containing Books Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference

Ratings: 4.24 From 3399 Users | 395 Reviews

Criticism Containing Books Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference

Upon closing this book, I immediately changed the charities I support and increased my donations. It left me with the empowering feeling that donating can be a very real alternative to doing good in the 'traditional ways', e.g. working directly for those in need or humanitarian organizations. For every $3,600 donated to protect people from malaria with bed nets, you (statistically) save a life. For every $100 you donate to the rainforest, you save an acre or 260 tons of CO2 (the average North

An interesting attempt at a completely rational, utilitarian perspective in charity, well grounded in moral philosophy and economics. Cute idea; we ought to attack more problems with this mindset. The perspective is welcome, but also very narrowit seems to me that there are other (also entirely neglected) disciplines such as moral psychology and political philosophy that should also be brought to the table. The body text is very easy to read, maybe too easy, but end notes contain some useful

Brilliant review of this by Amia Srinivasan in the LRB: "Stop the Robot Apocalypse".http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n18/amia-sri...

Doing Good Better is a great introduction to effective altruism and the sort of rational, evidence-based reasoning that is extremely helpful to making sure that what we do in our lives actually effectively fulfills our values.Without explicitly asking ourselves MacAskill's Second Key Question of Effective Altruism, "Is this the most effective thing you can do?" we may end up having a "merely very good" impact with our lives, which surprisingly is nowhere near as good as the best impact we

Doing Good Better provides a well reasoned introduction to effective altruism, the new social movement sweeping to globe. In this book, MacAskill provides a solid grounding in the major tenets of effective altruism and responds to many of the common retorts about charity. Is charity even effective? Should we support those close to us or those far from home? How should we evaluate new causes or charities? The simple manner in which he lays out the arguments makes this book accessible to all,



This book is not a 'fast' read so much as it is a book that is so fascinating that one wants to keep going. And I certainly did, with many stops to take notes, jot things down, and look up names and references. I anticipated in advance that the author would be a liberal do-gooder, and of course, he is. But that did not diminish my respect for him and his writing. His photo makes him appear to be a young man, but he is one very smart young man.Pay attention to what he writes because his analysis