A New Way to Think About Your Money | William MacAskill
This episode features William MacAskill, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University and co-founder of effective altruism, discussing how to use time and money to make the world better. He also introduces longtermism, a mental habit of considering future generations, and offers practical tips for both.
Deep Dive Analysis
19 Topic Outline
Introduction to Effective Altruism and Personal Finance
Defining Effective Altruism and its Core Arguments
Peter Singer's Drowning Child Analogy and Moral Obligation
Psychological Barriers to Acting on Moral Imperatives
Personal Impact of Effective Altruism on Lifestyle and Well-being
Practical Steps for Starting Effective Altruism Giving
Resources for Effective Giving and Charity Evaluation
Addressing Bias in Charity Evaluation: The Play Pump Example
Impact of Effective Altruism on the Nonprofit World
Optimism for the Future of Effective Altruism
Introduction to Longtermism: What We Owe the Future
Human Wiring for Longtermism and Cultural Influence
Strategies for Promoting Cultural Change Towards Longtermism
The Overlap Between Self-Interest and Altruism
Overcoming Pessimism and Cultivating an Action-Oriented Mindset
Practical Tips for Thinking and Acting on Longtermism
The Argument for Having Children from a Longtermist Perspective
Avoiding Value Lock-in and Maintaining Moral Progress
Recap of Resources for Deeper Engagement
4 Key Concepts
Effective Altruism
A movement focused on using one's time and money as effectively as possible to make the world a better place. It involves thinking critically about global problems and directing resources (like a percentage of income or career choice) to interventions with the biggest positive impact.
Longtermism
The view that positively impacting the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time. It involves taking seriously the potential scale of the future, identifying pivotal events that could influence the entire trajectory of human civilization, and acting to navigate these challenges for future generations.
Drowning Child Analogy
A thought experiment by philosopher Peter Singer, which posits that if you have a moral obligation to save a child drowning in a shallow pond at the cost of ruining your expensive suit, there is no morally relevant difference between that and saving a child dying of preventable disease in a distant country with a financial donation.
Value Lock-in
A risk where a particular set of values or a single worldview becomes globally dominant and entrenched, potentially hindering future moral progress and diversity of thought. This could arise from powerful technologies like AI or a unified world government.
10 Questions Answered
Effective altruism is a movement focused on using one's time and money as effectively as possible to make the world a better place, often by donating a significant portion of income to highly effective charities or orienting one's career towards high-impact work.
You should consider it because, to a near mathematical certainty, a few thousand dollars can save a life, and you have the capacity to do an enormous amount of good, which can also lead to a deeper sense of meaning and personal well-being.
Yes, according to Peter Singer's 'drowning child' analogy, there is no morally relevant difference between saving a child in front of you and saving a child dying of preventable causes in a distant country, implying a moral obligation to help.
While direct psychological highs from saving a life in person are different, the abstract awareness of saving lives through donations can provide deep reassurance, a sense of peace, and meaning, contributing to overall happiness.
You can start by taking a pledge (like the 'Try Giving Pledge' or '10% Pledge' at givingwhatwecan.org) to donate a chosen percentage of your income for a year, setting up a standing order, and then reflecting on your experience to potentially scale up.
For global health and development, GiveWell (givewell.org) is a top charity evaluator that conducts rigorous research to identify highly cost-effective nonprofits. Giving What We Can (givingwhatwecan.org) also provides recommendations across various cause areas.
Longtermism is the belief that positively impacting the long-term future is a key moral priority, requiring serious consideration of how vast the future might be and focusing on actions in our lifetime that could pivotally affect future generations.
While modern Western consumerist cultures often focus on the short-term, many indigenous philosophies demonstrate a deep concern for future generations, suggesting that long-term thinking is a matter of values and cultural focus rather than inherent wiring.
You can contribute by learning more about long-term risks and solutions (e.g., through books like 'What We Owe the Future' or 'The Precipice'), using your career to work on pressing issues (via resources like 80,000hours.org), and engaging with the Effective Altruism community.
No, it is not immoral. While children contribute to CO2 emissions, this impact can be offset for a fraction of the cost of raising a child, and children also contribute positively to society, innovation, and can become future change-makers.
26 Actionable Insights
1. Consider Giving Significant Income
Reflect on giving away a significant portion of your income, potentially 10% or more, because rigorous research shows a few thousand dollars can save a life with near mathematical certainty.
2. Rearrange Life for Good
Evaluate rearranging your entire life and career, including altering your profession, to actively implement the principle of doing the most good possible.
3. Give for Personal Happiness
Engage in financial giving, as it can make you a happier person and lead to a positive net impact on your well-being, more so than spending on luxury goods.
4. Donate for Deep Reassurance
Make donations to effective charities, as the abstract awareness of saving lives can provide deep reassurance, leading to a more holistic peace and meaning in life.
5. Develop Future Generations Habit
Cultivate the mental habit of considering the welfare of future generations in your thinking, as this practice is beneficial for both the species and your personal well-being right now.
6. Adopt Action-Oriented Mindset
Cultivate an action-oriented mindset by focusing on what you can do to improve situations, rather than dwelling on how bad things are, whether in your personal life or the world.
7. Envision Wonderful Future
Actively envision how wonderfully good the future could be if humanity makes the right choices, reflecting on peak personal experiences as a motivating force for positive change.
8. Prioritize Cultural Change
Prioritize fostering cultural change regarding long-term thinking, as robust political and institutional changes depend on genuine public concern for future generations.
9. Start Giving Early Career
Begin giving early in your career by donating the excess income as your salary increases, as it’s easier to avoid increasing consumption than to reduce it later.
10. Take a Giving Pledge
Consider taking the ‘Try Giving Pledge’ to commit a chosen percentage of your income for a year, or the ‘Giving What We Can 10% Pledge,’ then reflect and gradually increase your giving.
11. Automate Donations
Set up a standing order or direct debit for your chosen donation amount, as this automates the process and requires only one decision.
12. Research Effective Charities
Utilize resources like givewell.org and givingwhatwecan.org to research and identify charities with proven effectiveness and high cost-effectiveness in various cause areas.
13. Consider Direct Cash Transfers
Consider direct cash transfers to the poorest people, as they can best decide how to spend the money to meet their specific needs, often more effectively than prescribed interventions.
14. Prioritize Global Health
Prioritize global health interventions when donating, as the desire to avoid sickness and death from diseases like malaria is a universal human need, ensuring broad impact.
15. Solicit Beneficiary Feedback
Seek direct information from the people you aim to benefit about their needs and preferred trade-offs, ensuring interventions are aligned with their actual desires and not external assumptions.
16. Join Effective Altruism Community
Get involved with the Effective Altruism community to gain social support and rewards, as being part of a group doing good can be encouraging and reassuring.
17. Embrace Low-Material Lifestyle
Consider adopting a lifestyle that doesn’t involve large material expenditures, as there are many ways to have a very enjoyable life without significant spending on possessions.
18. Learn About Long-termism
Deepen your understanding of long-termism and its implications, particularly focusing on neglected or overlooked challenges like engineered pandemics and AI risks, to better inform your actions.
19. Spread Long-termism Arguments
Actively make and spread compelling arguments for why society should care about future generations, as this is a key method for driving cultural change.
20. Use Media for Long-termism
Leverage various media platforms like podcasts, YouTube, movies, and educational initiatives to disseminate long-termist ideas and foster cultural change.
21. Align Career with Long-Termism
Consider making significant career changes to work on the most pressing issues impacting the long-term future, as your time can be even more valuable than money in this domain.
22. Donate for Long-Term Future
Direct your financial donations towards causes that most effectively impact the long-term future, such as those supported by the Long-Term Future Fund at Giving What We Can.
23. Have Children, Raise Well
Consider having children and raising them well, as they can contribute positively to society and become change-makers, while their carbon impact can be effectively offset through targeted donations.
24. Maintain Diverse Worldviews
Actively maintain an openness to diverse moral perspectives and a wide range of worldviews to ensure continued moral progress and prevent the ‘value lock-in’ of potentially suboptimal values.
25. Appreciate Progress, Low Standards
Maintain ’low standards’ by appreciating how far humanity has progressed from historical conditions, which can foster optimism and counteract the unhelpful tendency to focus only on negatives.
26. Use Historical Comparison
Employ historical comparison as a thinking tool; on a bad day, reflect on the significantly worse conditions of past generations to gain perspective and reassurance about your present circumstances.
6 Key Quotes
If you're born into a rich country, you can save dozens or even hundreds of lives over the course of your lifetime. That's this phenomenal fact about the world.
Will McCaskill
It's like you can do that every few months. It's like, you know, in January, you rescue the child from burning building. In May, you save someone from drowning. In October, then someone's, you know, choking and do the Heimlich maneuver. And that just keeps happening over and over again. You would think like, wow, I've had this pretty remarkable life. But actually, that's just the situation we find ourselves in. That's the sort of life that one can have just by using your money in a different way.
Will McCaskill
I think people set up the distinction between acting for the good of others and acting to benefit yourself is like much starker than it really is. I think there's enormous ways which you can, enormous extent to which you can do both.
Will McCaskill
I'm in this because I want to make the world better. Getting to see the benefits of it is a happy bonus, but it's not the key thing.
Will McCaskill
I don't know, we're a bunch of monkeys. We've like managed to build a society that's already kind of amazing.
Will McCaskill
We're not rational animals, we're rationalizing animals.
Will McCaskill (attributing to Jonathan Haidt)
2 Protocols
Starting to Give Effectively (Try Giving Pledge)
Will McCaskill- Take some time (e.g., a weekend) to reflect on the ideas of effective altruism.
- Decide on a specific percentage of your income that you plan to give over the following year.
- Set up a standing order (direct debit) for that percentage to immediately go to a cause of your choice.
- After one year, check in to assess the experience and consider if you could give more next year, ideally building up to 10% or more.
Longtermism Action Plan
Will McCaskill- Learn a lot more about long-term risks, neglected challenges (like engineered pandemics or AI development), and potential solutions by reading resources such as 'What We Owe the Future', 'The Precipice', or the 'Cold Takes' blog.
- Use your money by focusing donations on causes that most effectively impact the long-term future, for example, through the Long-Term Future Fund found at Giving What We Can.
- Use your career by making changes to work on the most pressing long-term issues, utilizing career advice resources like 80,000 Hours.
- Get involved with the Effective Altruism community by attending conferences (e.g., Effective Altruism Global) to gain context, get up to speed, and figure out the best fit for your contribution.