Week 1: The Effectiveness Mindset “We are always in triage. I fervently hope that one day we will be able to save everyone. In the meantime, it is irresponsible to pretend that we aren’t making life and death decisions with the allocation of our resources. Pretending there is no choice only makes our decisions worse." - Holly Elmore Over the course of Week 1 and 2 we aim to introduce you to the core principles of Effective Altruism. This week we’ll investigate what opportunities to do good we have available to us; come to terms with the tradeoffs we face in our altruistic efforts; and explore tools that can help us find unusually high impact opportunities. Core Materials ● Doing Good Better - Introduction till Chapter 4 (60 mins.) ● 500 Million, But Not a Single One More (5 mins.) ● We are in triage every second of every day (5 mins.) Recommended reading ● The world is much better; The world is awful; The world can be much better - Our World in Data (5 mins.) ● Introduction to EA | Ajeya Cotra | EAGxBerkeley 2016 (Video - 30 mins.) ● No matter your job, here’s 3 evidence-based ways anyone can have a real impact - 80,000 Hours (20 mins.) ● The lack of controversy over well-targeted aid - GiveWell (10 mins.) More to explore (EXTRA MATERIAL FOR 2 CREDIT STUDENTS) ● The value of a life - Minding Our Own Way - Disentangling the difference between the value of a life and what it costs to save a life in our broken world. (15 mins.) ● Tradeoffs - How can we balance our own needs with the needs of others? (5 mins.) ● Excited altruism - GiveWell - Where does our own passion and excitement fit into the picture? (10 mins.) ● Save a life or receive cash? Which do recipients want? - IDinsight - Explores the preferences and values of individuals and communities in Ghana and Kenya to inform funding allocations. (10 mins.) ● Reasoning Transparency - Open Philanthropy Project - A guide on how to write while being more transparent on the reasoning behind your views. (25 mins.) Criticisms against RCT-based charities ● Growth and the case against randomista development - An argument that research on and advocacy for economic growth in low- and middle-income countries is more 5 cost-effective than the things funded by proponents of randomised controlled trials development. (60 mins - if you’re short on time, read Sections 1-3) ● Q&A with Elie Hassenfeld Elie, the CEO and co-founder of GiveWell, discusses his organization’s latest research, his views on economic growth, and what he’s changed his mind on lately (60 mins.) ● ‘Criticisms of EA’ Section from here: The Lessons of Effective Altruism | Ethics & International Affairs 6