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How can we use our resources to help others the most? William MacAskill, one of the cofounders of the Effective Altruism movement tries to answer this question in his book 'Doing Good Better'. Effective altruism essentially tries to provide guidelines for what an individual can do to have the maximum impact of 'good' in their lifetime. The book is roughly split into two sections; the theory and the implementation. The theoretical side addresses questions related to measurement of charities and ways to ensure that good intentions have good outcomes. The practical implementation addresses whether it is better to donate directly, vote with your product choices, work in a profession to directly help others and social activist causes that could benefit humanity as a whole.

I had this to say after reading the book. "William has a no nonsense approach to the age old problem of good intentions not necessarily leading to good outcomes. He does this by analytically determining what charities do the most good and giving a good list of practical steps that an individual can take to be effective in their choices. He has solid rational arguments with my only gripe being that the book can come across as too dispassionate and not taking into account my individual emotions/feelings to certain causes close to my heart. I found this book addressed a lot of my own arguments against donating and was well thought out and researched."

As always, we hope you enjoy, Mere Mortals out!

Timeline:

(0:00) - Synopsis

(2:26) - Theory: 5 Key Questions

(8:57) - Practice: What should you do right now?

(17:37) - Personal observations: moral issues and assumptions

(18:41) - Summary: solid arguments but overly rational

(19:31) - Pragmatic Takeaway: starting to donate

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