WEBVTT - How Effective Altruism Works 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.280 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.200 Clark and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant and Jerry's here, 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.640 so that appropriately makes this stuff you should know. That's right. 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.239 Before we get going, we want to give a little 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.799 special plug to our good friend John Hodgeman and our 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:31.479 buddy David Reese because they got a season two of 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:35.200 their awesome animated show dick Town. Yeah as in Private 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.800 Detective dick By. Yeah. I mean, it's cool enough to 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:40.760 get one season of the show, but if you've gotten 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.080 a second season and they're tossing you on f X 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:45.800 these days, you've made it. So their show is finally 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:47.879 made it and it's well deserved too, because it's a 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.000 pretty awesome cartoon. It is, it's very funny. It is 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:55.959 actually live now. It premiered on March three at ten 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.520 pm on f x X. You can watch it on 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.760 Who Lou and the whole jam here is that John 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.840 and I watched the whole first season, the whole their 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.480 short episodes. The whole first season was less than two 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.560 hours long, which really like makes a great case. We're 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.440 just streaming the whole thing and laughing a lot in 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.480 one night. But it's uh, it's about two detectives, John Hunchman, 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:23.280 John Hodgeman and David Purefoy David Reese, and uh, Hodgeman 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.959 is a is a private detective. He was a former 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.880 boy detective like Encyclopedia Brown type and and Dave was his, 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.960 uh sort of his bugs, meaning his nemesis in high 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:39.200 school and now is now his buddy and his sort 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.160 of muscle and his driver and his and they solve 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.000 cases together. And uh A season two I think is 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.240 even bigger and weirder, and it's sort of Scooby Doo. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.080 It's just a lot of fun, really really fun show. Yeah, 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.920 the first season they did nothing but solve children's um, 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.080 which is his, and they were humiliated by that. So 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.800 they they've kind of expanded now to be grown ups. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:02.760 They've resolved to be grown ups and they're solving grown 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.040 up mysteries for grown ups now, which is really something else. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:07.800 So yeah, like you said, you can stream the whole 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.640 first season on Hulu, and you can catch this second 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.400 season on f x X. I wasn't aware of the 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.320 extra X. I don't take back what I originally said. 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.160 It's still big time but f x X that's right. Uh, 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.560 And it is rated PG thirteen, so if you're thirteen 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:27.600 and up you should enjoy. It's got a few swear words, 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.800 adult themes here and there, but it's it's great. It's 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.800 a lot of fun. Happy for Hodgman in Reese. Happy 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.960 Happy Hodgeman, Happy, happy Reese. And I just like saying 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.640 dick Town. Sure, it's a great name for a great show. 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.040 It is. Should we talk about effective altruism? Yeah, I 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.480 was gonna say, we're we're talking about that today and 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:51.720 this one kind of I don't know if you noticed 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.079 a similarity, but this one really kind of ties into 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:58.200 that short stuff that we uh we released before the 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.320 end of the year about riable giving. Did you notice 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:06.480 I did? Although in that episode it was like we're like, yeah, 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:08.360 you know, find a charity that speaks to you and 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:10.960 maybe something it's local, or if you have animals, or 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.720 if you had you know, a family member with cancer, 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.480 and this basically says don't do any of that, right, Uh, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.880 the only way you should give is by just kind 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:25.800 of coldly calculating what would help a human the most 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:31.079 on planet Earth. Yes, so effective altruism is one of 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.160 those movements. It's a pretty new movement. I think it 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:38.400 really started in earnest around two thousand ten UM. And 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:43.000 it's one of those movements that like elicits passion one 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.960 way or another. It's a very polarizing idea if you 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.320 just take it at its bare bones, which people love 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:52.680 to do. And the reason why people love to take 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.760 it at its bare bones, at its extremes extremes is 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:01.040 because it is at heart of philosophical movement. Its rooted 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:05.120 in utilitarianism, and utilitarianism is even more polarizing it has 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:09.640 been for centuries than effective altruism is. And I think 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:13.280 if everybody would just move past the most extreme parts 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.960 of it and just kind of took effective altruism and 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.640 it's at its most middle ground, where most of it 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:21.960 seems to have accumulated and settled and where most of 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.159 the work is being done, it would be really difficult 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.640 to disagree with the ideas behind it. It's when you 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.039 trot out Peter Singer and some of his most extreme views, 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.120 or when you say, oh, it's all Silicon Valley billionaires, 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.760 you know, um, when you when you just look at 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.159 it like that, that's when people get all riled up 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.039 and they're like, I hate it infactive altruism. If you 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.080 really just kind of take it in a much more 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.760 level headed way, it's actually pretty sensible and pretty great 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.200 because at the end of the day, you're saving people's 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.480 lives and you're figuring out how to save the most 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.760 lives possible. Yeah. I think anything that has some of 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:04.560 its roots and philosophical movements of tech bros. It's it's 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.279 a hard sell for a lot of people. Uh, but 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.640 let's talk about a few things that it is, which 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:16.640 is the idea that, uh, there's a lot of good 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.160 that can be done with money, and if you can 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:23.440 provide for yourself and your own basic needs, um, you 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.160 should be probably giving to charity. Uh. You can take 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:32.960 a cold hard look at your finances by literal, strict 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:37.279 calculations financial calculations. If you make if you were a 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.839 person without kids making forty dollar a year, you are 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:45.400 in the ninety seven point four percentile on planet Earth 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.640 as far as your wealth goes. And that you might 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.200 not think if make forty dollars a year and then 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.280 I have taxes, and I really like people with a 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:56.960 lot of money should give to charities. I really don't 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.080 have enough to spare. The idea is that, no, you 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.520 have some to spare. You can give a little bit, 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.919 uh like ten of your money and still be in 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.279 the top ninety six percentile and you can literally save 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.159 human lives on plans. That's the big thing that they're 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.840 trying to get across here, that like, the money that 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:21.880 you're giving is saving lives that otherwise would be crippled 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:26.279 with disease or just not around, like they would die 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.520 if you didn't give this money. And the fact that 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.680 you are giving this money, those people are now living 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.359 what are called quality adjusted life years, where they're living 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:41.400 in additional healthy year or more because of that intervention 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.800 that you gave your money for. And that yes, it's 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.839 based on the premise that basically everyone living in the 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:53.400 United States is rich compared to entire swaths of the 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.760 rest of the world, and that basically anyone living in 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.800 the United States can afford to give temper scent of 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.159 their income and forego some clothes or some cars or 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:08.960 something like that to help other people literally survive. And 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:13.680 so right off the bat, we've reached levels of discomfort 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.440 for the average person, especially the average American that like 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.080 that are really tough to deal with. And so that's 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.400 the first challenge that effective ultrasts have to do is 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.560 kind kind of tamped down that overwhelming sense of guilt 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.800 and responsibility and shame at not doing that that that 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:33.240 people immediately kind of that crops up and people when 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.600 they hear about this. Yeah, So I think maybe let's 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.000 talk a little bit about the history and some of 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.040 the main organizations that are tackling this and maybe through 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:47.120 that what some of the founders describe as the core commitments. 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.400 Like you said, it took hold in about two thousand 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.000 and ten UH, and there's a group of organizations under 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.160 what is now an umbrella organization called the Center for 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:02.680 Effective Altruism c e A. And UH started off with 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:07.000 philosopher's Toby Ord and Will mccaskell founding a group called 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.520 Giving What we Can UH self defined as an international 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.920 community of people committed to giving more and giving more effectively. 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.160 A couple of years later, mccaskell and a man named 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.520 Benjamin Todd founded something called eighty thousand Hours, the ideas 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:22.720 that you might devote eighty thousand hours to a career, 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:27.480 so when choosing a career be very thoughtful on the 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.200 impact that career has for both good and evil. We'll 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:35.679 get way more into all this, uh, and then um, 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.720 there's other you know, sort of nut fringes and weird 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.520 groups but just on the outskirts called The Life You 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.959 Can Save and then animal charity evaluators, which we'll get 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.480 into how animals figure in. Um, but let's talk a 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.000 little bit. I guess about Will mccaskell and what he 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.040 sees as the core what he calls the core commitments 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.480 of e A. So yeah, and Will McCaskill, he's A. 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.720 He's out of Oxford, and so is Toby Ord. And 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.040 I first came across this chuck when I was researching 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.000 the End of the World podcast, and like, I deeply 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.520 admire Toby Ord on like a personal level. He actually 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.800 walks the walkkey and his whole family does, like they 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.840 donate a significant portion of their family income to charity 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.200 and like forego all sorts of stuff, and like he's 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.040 literally trying to save the world. So um, and that 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.760 since I'm I'm like really kind of open to the 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.280 ideas that come out of that guy's mouth. Um, and 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.319 you mentioned the End of the World with Josh Clark 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.720 available wherever you can find your podcast. Yes, you're wonderful heady, 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:38.680 highly produced in part series. Thank you very much. That 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.320 was nice of you. Where is the new tackle the 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.560 existing existential risks of the of the universe? Yes, okay, 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:47.040 that's I just want to make sure the right chich 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.440 one and the same. And I was not doing that 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:51.200 to set you up for a plug. I was doing 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.079 it and like kind of full disclosure that I'm a 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:57.480 little I'm probably a little less than objective at this one. Yeah, 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.040 but you know, that's a great show and it's still 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.280 out there just because it is, you know, a few 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.800 years old now, it's very evergreen. I think it's at 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.840 least in these times. Yeah, the world hasn't ended yet, 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.720 so it's still ever exactly good point. So, um, but 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.120 I mentioned that in part is kind of fully disclosed. 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.440 Um that I think Toby we're just one of the 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.360 greatest people walk in the earth right now. But also 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.640 Will mccaskell, who I don't know, seems to be in 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.640 lock step with Toby too, and so he's kind of 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:29.760 one of the one of the founders of this movement. 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.440 And he said that that there's um four tenants he 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.600 wrote a two thousand eighteen paper. And so there's basically 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:39.160 four tenants that formed the core of effective altruism. One 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.079 is maximizing the good, which we can all pretty much 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.319 get on board with, like you want to make as 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:46.960 much good as possible for as many people as possible. 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.360 The second is aligning your aligning your your ideas, your 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:59.319 your contributions with science using like evidence based um uh 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.600 well evian to to to create where you're going to 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.400 put your donations to use that to guide you rather 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.640 than your heart. It's a big one, so it's a 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:12.199 tough one for people's swallow. Another one's welfare is m 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:18.400 where by maximizing the good, you're you're improving the welfare 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.040 of others. That's the definition of good in that sense 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.120 of maximizing the good. And then last one is impartiality. 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.160 That's as hard for for people this swallow. That's harder 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.840 I think for people swallow than science alignment, um, because 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.680 what you're saying, then, Chuck, is that every single person 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:40.640 out there in the world equally deserves um your charitable contribution. Yeah. 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.440 And that's a big one because I'm trying to find 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:50.480 the number here of how much Americans give abroad. Where 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:55.959 is that? Okay, here we go out of the um. 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.319 What is it four hundred and seventy billion dollars that 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:03.920 Americans donate? Yeah, I think, yeah, one billion dollars twenty 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.760 five point nine billion of that went to went outside 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.240 of America to international affairs. So it's a lot of money, 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.160 but it's not a lot of money in the total 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.679 pot in the The idea for e A is is 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.840 to sort of shatter your way of thinking about, you know, 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.120 trying to help the your the people in your city, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.960 or the people in your state or your country, and 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.680 to look at every human life is having equal value. Yes, 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.520 and not even human life, but every life. Yeah, they 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.760 include animals too, like you mentioned before, and we'll get 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.880 into a little more um. But the key is that 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:43.840 if every single person living on earth is equally important, 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.559 then and you're trying to maximize the help you can 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.559 you can do if from a from a strict e 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:56.160 A perspective, you're wasting your money if you're donating that money, 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.960 if you're an American, if you're donating it in America, 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.720 because just by virtue of the value of a dollar, 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.520 it can do exponentially more good. One dollar can in 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:10.959 other like developing poverty stricken areas of the world, then 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.320 it can here in the United States. So that right 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.000 there sets up for critics of that of a like 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:18.920 to point out that, well, wait a minute, wait amut, 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.120 are you saying that we shouldn't donate locally here at home, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.440 That we shouldn't save the animals and the animal shelter, 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.040 That we shouldn't donate to your local food pantry, That 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.959 you shouldn't donate to your church. And if you really 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.480 back at effective altruists into a corner, they would say, look, 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.920 just speaking of maximizing your impact and everybody around the 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:42.280 world is equally important. No, you shouldn't be doing any 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.720 of those things, and you certainly shouldn't be donating any 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.600 money to your local museum or symphony or something like that. Yeah, 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:50.960 And they say that with their their head down and 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.000 they're kind of drawing on the floor with your foot. 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.560 They're saying like, yeah, that's kind of what we're saying. 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.480 That's right, yes, And that's really tough for people swallow. 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.720 There's like it's just this huge jagged pill that they're 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.520 asking people swallow. But if you can step back from it, 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.400 What they're ultimately saying is, look, man, you want to 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.719 do the most good with your charitable donations, here's how 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.439 to do it. You want to sit aside, you want 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.320 to feel good about it, or really do the good exactly. 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:22.400 And that's what they're doing. That's the whole basis of 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.720 effective altruism. Is they're saying, set like you're all of 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.360 your charitable giving is for you. You're doing it for yourself, 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.000 that's why you give. This takes that out of the 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:37.400 equation and says, now you're giving to genuinely help somebody else. 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:41.240 All right, I think that's a great beginning. Maybe let's 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.840 take a break now that everyone knows what this is 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:47.560 and everyone is is choking on their coffee because they 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:52.320 just donated to their local neighbor organization. Uh. And we'll 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:54.880 come back and talk about some of the other uh 0:14:55.200 --> 0:15:15.800 philosophical founders right after this. George So a couple of 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.120 people we should mention really quickly because they're gonna come 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:22.920 up as far as organizations we did not mention GiveWell yet. Uh. 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:24.920 They were founded in two thousand seven. They're a big 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.200 part of the e a movement by Facebook co founder 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:34.440 Dustin Moskovitz and his wife. Is it carry or Carrie Tuna. 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.080 I'm going with Cary. I think so it's c A 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.240 r I. Uh So they have partnered up UM to 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:46.800 create open philanthropy, UM phil and philanthropy. It sounds weird. 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.000 I wanted to say philanthropy LOO too early in the 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.720 episode for that. Uh So they're they're big donors and 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.000 big believers in the cause UM. And then another person 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:02.760 you mentioned is well, first of all, you mentioned utilitarians, uh, 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.760 in this philosophical movement UM, they were developed by and 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.680 then we've talked about Jeremy Jeremy Bentham before and John 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.640 Stewart Mill. But the idea that people should do what 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.200 causes the most happiness and relieves the most suffering. And 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.040 the other guy you mentioned that uh sort of controversial, 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.120 I guess you could say is Peter Singer. Uh. He 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.640 is an author and a philosopher and a and a 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:33.040 ted talker who who kind of UM became I don't 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:34.720 know about famous, because a lot of people don't know 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:39.600 any modern philosophers, but in these circles became famous from 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.280 an idea thought experiment in V two from his essay Famine, 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:48.240 Affluence and morality, which is, you're going to work. You 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:51.280 just bought some really expensive, great new shoes. You see 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.360 a kid drowning in a shallow pond. Do you wait 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.800 in there and ruin those new shoes and rescue the 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:02.400 kid and make you late for work? And you know, people, 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:04.600 if asked would say, well, of course you do. You're 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.520 not gonna let that kid drown. So that the flip 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.560 to that is, well, that's happening every day all over 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.440 the world, and you're essentially saving your new shoes by 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:19.720 letting these kids die. Yeah, you're you're you're buying those 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.159 new shoes rather than donating that money to save a 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.240 child's life. It's morally speaking, it's the exact same thing. 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.440 And in the in the essay I wrote it last night, 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.240 it's really good. Do you want to feel like a 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:36.040 total piece of garbage for not doing enough in the world. Um. 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:40.280 He basically goes on to destroy any argument about, well, 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.360 that's a kid that you see in a pond. You're 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.800 you're actually physically saving that kid. He's like, well, it's 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.080 so easy to donate to help a child on the 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:49.760 other side of the world, right now, that for all 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.720 intents and purposes, it's as easy as going into a 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.280 pond to say. These days it is easier. You don't 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.880 even have to get wet. You're just calling your credit 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:02.480 card basically, you know. Um, So, so he just destroys 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.719 like any argument you could possibly have. And he is 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:12.400 an extremist utilitarian philosopher, and that he's basically saying, not 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:18.040 just that giving money to the point where you are 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:23.800 just above the level of poverty the as the people 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:28.399 you're giving, like really cutting into your your luxuries to 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.440 help other people. Not only is that a good thing 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.000 if you do that, it's actually not doing that is 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.680 a morally bad thing. It's morally wrong to not do that. 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.840 So he will really turn like the the hot plate 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.560 up under you. Um, and it just really make you 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.760 feel uncomfortable. But he's saying like like, this is my 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.720 philosophical argument, and it's pretty sound if you hear me out, 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.680 and if you hear him out, it is pretty sound. Um. 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.720 The problem is he's a utilitarian philosopher and a very 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.679 strict one too, And so um, there's a lot of 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.199 like you can take that stuff to the nth degree, 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:08.600 to some really terrible extremes, um to where it's it 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:13.439 becomes so anti sentimental that, um, it actually can be 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:18.800 nauseating sometimes, Like, strictly speaking, under your utilitarian view, this 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:23.159 one's often trotted out. It is morally good to murder 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.439 one person to harvest their organs to save the lives 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.720 of five other people with the the murdered person's organs. 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:36.439 Technically speaking in the utilitarian lens, that's that's maximizing the 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:38.960 good in the world. The thing is is, like, if 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.440 that's what you're focusing on, and you're equating effective altruisms 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:45.639 desire to get the most bang for your donation buck 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.600 to murdering somebody to harvest their organs to save five people, 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.600 you've just completely lost your way. Sure you can, you 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.960 can win an argument against utilitarianism in that respect, but 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.320 the fact that it's leveled and trained on on these 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:05.000 on this movement, this charitable philanthropy movement, is totally unfair, 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.520 even though yes, it is pretty much part and parcel 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:13.200 with utilitarianism. Yeah, the singer is a guy who I 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.479 think is one of his philosophies is the journey of life, 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:22.359 and that interrupting a life before it has goals or 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:27.479 after it's accomplished goals is Okay. Uh so he you know, 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:29.119 if you mentioned his name, there are a lot of 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:33.280 people will will point to this idea that he says 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.880 things like it's okay to kill a disabled baby right 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.040 after they're born in some cases, especially if it will 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:42.920 lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.720 of a happy and productive life, or an older person 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:49.600 who has already accomplished those goals, and the idea being 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:54.480 that the disabled baby doesn't have goals yet. Uh, you know, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.879 that's obviously some controversial stuff. Then he's a hard liner 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.960 and doubles down on this, but it again to to 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:04.080 sort of throw that in that has nothing to do 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:08.520 with effective altruism. No, he wrote that paper Famine, Affluence 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:13.679 and Morality, which basically provides the general contours of the 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.080 effective altruist movement. But it's not like he's just the 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:20.240 leading heartbeat of the movement or anything like that. That's 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.240 not their bible or anything like that. No, And unfortunately 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.119 he's an easy target that people can like point to 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.200 because the effective altruist movement has kind of taken some 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.280 of his ideas and they're like, oh, yeah, you like singer, Well, 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:34.480 what about singers arguing about this. It's like that has 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.000 nothing to do with effect of altruism. He makes a 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:41.240 really good, easy, easily obtained straw man that people like 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:45.000 to pick on. That's right. Uh. Let's talk about numbers 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.080 a little bit. We mentioned that in the United States, uh, 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:53.520 four seventy one billion dollars was donated in UM. About 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.840 three and twenty four of that came from individuals, which 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:59.680 is amazing. You know, those corporate guys are really pulling 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:03.000 their way. Yeah, no kidding, Uh, individuals, and that boils 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:06.280 down to about a thousand dollars per person uh in 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.720 the USA, which is not that much money if you 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.199 think about it. And out of that, there are a 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:16.600 couple of UM pledges that e A endorses. One called 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.480 Giving what we Can, which is promising to give away 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.600 ten percent of your lifetime income, and then another one 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:25.040 called the Founder's Pledge, where if you're a startup founder, 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.719 you promised to give away a percentage of your eventual proceeds. Uh. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.760 And then there's also try Giving, which is a temporary 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:37.400 pledge to donate. And you know, it's only about twelve 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.080 years old. Only about eight to ten people have taken 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.520 these pledges so far, right, UM, which is still I mean, 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.320 that's a decent amount of people, especially considering that most 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.360 of the people involved in this movement are UM high earning, 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.760 UM extremely educated people who are probably like ten percent 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:56.760 of their income is going to add up to quite 0:22:56.760 --> 0:22:59.240 a bit over the course of their careers. And that's 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:02.240 the thing they're saying, I'm going to give this ten 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:06.120 percent a year for my career. And the reason why 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.159 they really kind of targeted careers. Um, that's part of 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:12.200 eighty thousand hours. Eighty thousand hours is this idea that 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:14.919 we spent about eighty thousand hours working. So if you 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:17.280 took that eighty thousand hours and figured out how to 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:23.760 direct your energy the most effectively towards saving the world, um, 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.399 you can really do some good just by the virtue 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:29.480 of having to have this career to support yourself. And 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:31.520 so there's a couple of ways to do it. One 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:34.360 is to have a job that you make as much 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:37.160 money as you possibly can at and then you donate 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:40.200 as much as you comfortably can, and then maybe even 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:44.560