Good, Better, Best?
Book Review: William MacAskill, "Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference", 2016, Guardian Books & Faber. This is a book that introduces the core ideas behind the effective altruism movement. It is also, I think, a book that conveys the principles of good reasoning. Writing with clarity, Will MacAskill tells us how to select a charity to which to donate, how to pick a career or cause area to work in, and how to make the greatest difference as consumers. However, the principles underlying his advice -- the "five key questions of effective altruism" as MacAskill calls them -- could also be adapted to decision-making in general. Doing Good Better begins by discussing two different approaches to helping others: the first is exemplified by the PlayPump (a kind of water pump that doubles as a roundabout/playground for kids), which caught a lot of attention in the early 2000s and raised millions of dollars. People thought ...