#36 William MacAskill: The Science of Doing Good
William MacAskill, co-founder of the Centre for Effective Altruism and Oxford professor, discusses injecting science into philanthropy. He advocates for evidence-based giving, evaluating charities by impact, and considering long-term global well-being over short-term emotional responses.
Deep Dive Analysis
22 Topic Outline
Injecting Science into Philanthropy: The Effective Altruism Approach
Philosophical Roots: Peter Singer's Drowning Child Analogy
William MacAskill's Personal Commitment to Lifetime Giving
Debate: Giving Early vs. Compounding Wealth for Future Philanthropy
Criticisms of Effective Altruism and Flawed Charity Evaluation Metrics
Why Effective Charitable Giving is Difficult
Career Paths: Non-Profit Work vs. Earning to Give
The Importance of Personal Fit and Developing Passion in Careers
Addressing Bureaucracy and Lack of Feedback in the Philanthropic World
Limited-Life Foundations vs. Perpetual Endowments
Navigating Ethical Uncertainty and Comparing Different Types of Good
Metrics for Measuring the Impact and Return on Giving
Models for Effective Philanthropy: GiveWell and Open Philanthropy Project
Problems Best Solved by Markets and Governments, Not Philanthropy
The Misconception of Taxes as Charity
Government's Role in Global Public Goods and Development Aid
Challenging the 'Charity Starts at Home' Mentality
The Risk of Unintended Harm in Well-Intentioned Programs
Reflections on Achieving Early Academic Tenure
Combating Overconfidence and Embracing Fallibility in Decision-Making
Foundational Values and a Nuanced View of Radical Honesty
Defining Success and the Purpose of Life
7 Key Concepts
Effective Altruism
An approach to doing good that emphasizes using reason and evidence to identify the most impactful ways to use resources (money, time, career) to benefit others, often contrasting with emotion-driven or unreflective charitable giving.
Drowning Child Analogy
A thought experiment by philosopher Peter Singer, which posits that if one can save a child's life at a trivial cost to oneself (e.g., ruining an expensive suit), they are morally obligated to do so, and this obligation extends to saving lives in poor countries through effective charitable donations.
Overheads Ratio
A financial metric used by some charity evaluators (like Charity Navigator) that assesses the percentage of a charity's spending on administrative costs versus program costs. Effective altruism critiques this as a poor metric because an organization can be 'efficiently bad' if its programs are ineffective, regardless of low overheads.
Personal Fit (Career)
When choosing a career, this refers to identifying an area where one could become exceptionally good if they invest significant time and effort, rather than solely relying on existing passions or current skills, as mastery often leads to passion.
Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY)
A metric from health economics that quantifies the benefit of medical or health interventions by combining the extension of life and the improvement in the quality of that life. It allows for comparison of diverse health programs by assigning a numerical value to their impact on well-being.
Veil of Ignorance
A philosophical concept, originated by John Hoshanyi, suggesting that one's moral judgments about how society should be structured should be made without knowing one's own position, talents, or circumstances within that society, leading to more impartial and just outcomes.
Overconfidence (Cognitive Bias)
A pervasive human tendency to overestimate one's own abilities, knowledge, and the accuracy of one's beliefs. This bias can lead to poor decision-making in various domains, from personal choices to international relations.
12 Questions Answered
Effective altruism applies scientific rigor, evidence, and argument to doing good, aiming to maximize positive impact. This contrasts with traditional philanthropy, which is often emotion-driven and assumes good intentions are sufficient.
Giving effectively is hard because, unlike the for-profit world where bad companies fail, ineffective charities can persist if they are good at fundraising, and donors often lack direct feedback on their impact.
While non-profit careers are valuable, earning a high income in the private sector and donating a significant portion can often lead to a greater impact, as one might be able to fund multiple non-profit roles.
Personal fit should focus on areas where one could become very good with significant investment, as mastery often leads to passion and greater impact, rather than solely current passions or skills.
William MacAskill is strongly in favor of limited-life foundations because perpetual ones can become detached from their original purpose, addressing problems that no longer exist, or spending money on future generations who will be much richer.
Metrics like Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) in health economics measure life extension and quality improvement, or one can assess the percentage increase in income for beneficiaries and the number of people affected.
GiveWell is highly recommended for finding effective giving opportunities in global health and development, and the Open Philanthropy Project is a model foundation for its transparency and strategic focus on long-term risks like advanced AI and synthetic biology.
William MacAskill argues that taxes are generally not charity because they pay for public goods (like protection, roads, legal systems) that are prerequisites for earning income in the first place, rather than an additional act of giving.
William MacAskill has little sympathy for this view, arguing that all people have equal moral value, and one's country of birth is a matter of luck. Even the poor in rich countries are often among the wealthiest globally, and problems in poorer countries are often more extreme and easier to solve.
Yes, doing something complex like giving in a foreign country or even at home can backfire, as seen with programs like 'Scared Straight' which actively increased crime rates among participants due to a lack of proper feedback mechanisms.
The most common mistake is not investigating how to do something well by seeking out existing information, books, or advice from those who have successfully accomplished similar goals, instead trying to 'reinvent the wheel.'
The meaning and purpose of life is to contribute in a way that improves others' lives as much as possible, and for humanity as a whole, it is to carry the 'fragile candle of humanity' forward, ensuring the long-term flourishing of the human race and avoiding global catastrophe.
29 Actionable Insights
1. Maximize Others’ Well-being
Ground your foundational values in maximizing the well-being and happiness of others, striving for actions that increase positive mental states and reduce suffering for the greatest number of people.
2. Define Success by World Impact
Define personal success in terms of the positive impact made on the world and contribution to humanity’s flourishing, as this perspective is more likely to lead to a meaningful and fulfilling life than the pursuit of financial gain or status alone.
3. Apply Scientific Rigor to Altruism
Approach charitable giving and efforts to do good with scientific rigor, evidence, and argument, rather than being solely emotion-driven, to ensure maximum positive impact and avoid ineffective programs.
4. Combat Overconfidence, Calibrate Beliefs
Actively work to reduce overconfidence in your beliefs and probability assessments by engaging in calibration exercises, which help you internalize what different likelihood percentages truly mean.
5. Embrace Intellectual Humility
Cultivate intellectual humility by becoming ambivalent when an equally intelligent and well-reasoned person holds an opposing view, recognizing their equal likelihood of being correct and fostering an environment where the best argument prevails.
6. Invest Years in Career Exploration
Dedicate a significant amount of time, even a few years, early in your career to try out various types of work to identify the area where you can achieve the most impact and develop deep interest, despite social pressures to accelerate.
7. Earn to Give for Greater Impact
Explore high-earning career paths with the intention of donating a substantial portion of your income, as this strategy can often generate more philanthropic impact than directly working in the non-profit sector.
8. Prioritize Career Personal Fit
When choosing a career, especially among plausibly impactful options, prioritize ‘personal fit’ by considering where you could become highly skilled and passionate after significant investment, rather than just current passions or skills.
9. Cultivate Passion Through Mastery
Understand that passion often arises from achieving mastery in a subject or area, rather than being a prerequisite; invest time and effort to become proficient, and deep interest will likely develop.
10. Research Before Acting
Avoid the common mistake of ‘reinventing the wheel’ by always investigating how others have successfully accomplished a given task or goal, seeking out existing information, books, or direct advice from those with experience.
11. Prioritize Saving Lives Over Luxuries
Re-evaluate personal spending on luxuries, considering that the same money could statistically save a child’s life in a poor country through effective interventions like distributing bed nets.
12. Commit to Lifetime Giving Threshold
Calculate your financial needs for a happy life and commit to donating all income earned above that baseline to charity, potentially giving away a significant portion of lifetime earnings.
13. Annual Income-Based Charitable Giving
Donate income above a predetermined baseline once a year to maintain accountability and potentially achieve greater impact, as money donated earlier can compound in impact more effectively than financial investments.
14. Give Early for Compounding Impact
Prioritize giving charitably earlier in life, as the impact of donations can compound over time, especially in growing cause areas, potentially yielding greater returns than typical financial investments.
15. Support Independent Charity Evaluators
To combat bureaucracy and inefficiency in philanthropy, support and rely on independent institutions that rigorously assess non-profits, providing essential feedback and guiding donations to the most impactful organizations.
16. Consult Expert Charity Evaluators
To find highly effective giving opportunities, consult expert charity evaluators like GiveWell for global health and development, and the Open Philanthropy Project for strategic, long-term focused cause areas, both known for their transparency and rigorous research.
17. Prioritize Impact: More Lives, Greater Need
When choosing charitable interventions, prioritize those that can save a thousand lives over one, or save a life over curing a broken leg, focusing on maximizing the number of people benefited and the severity of the problem addressed.
18. Measure Giving with QALYs or Income
Evaluate the effectiveness of charitable giving by measuring the return using metrics such as ‘Quality-Adjusted Life Years’ (QALYs), which combine life extension and quality of life improvement, or by the percentage increase in beneficiaries’ income.
19. Verify Programs with High-Quality Evidence
Recognize that even well-intentioned programs can be actively harmful; always verify their effectiveness using high-quality evidence such as randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses, rather than relying on anecdotal feedback.
20. Expand Cause Areas Beyond RCTs
Broaden your philanthropic focus beyond traditional global health and development to include areas like the long-term future of humanity, recognizing that effective interventions in these areas may rely on less quantitative evidence.
21. Prefer Limited-Life Foundations
When considering philanthropic structures, favor limited-life foundations that spend down their endowments over a set period, as perpetual foundations can become misaligned with original goals or address problems that are no longer relevant.
22. Use Veil of Ignorance
Employ the ‘Veil of Ignorance’ thought experiment – imagining how you would structure society if you didn’t know your own position within it – to develop more impartial and just moral views.
23. Challenge ‘Charity Starts at Home’
Actively challenge the ‘charity starts at home’ mindset by acknowledging the equal moral value of all individuals, regardless of their country of birth, and recognizing that greater impact can often be achieved by assisting the extremely poor globally.
24. Philanthropy as Last Defense
Understand philanthropy’s role as a ’last line of defense’ for societal problems that are not effectively solved by market forces or government action, particularly for vulnerable populations or future generations.
25. Taxes Are Not Charity
Avoid the misconception that paying taxes is a form of charity, as taxes primarily fund public goods and services that are fundamental prerequisites for earning income and maintaining a functional society.
26. Government: Global Goods, Health, Cash
If in a position of government influence, prioritize investment in global public goods such as medical research, heavily focus development aid on global health, and rigorously test the effectiveness of all spending against direct cash transfers to the poor.
27. Be Honest, Avoid Radical Honesty
Strive for general honesty and aim to never lie, but avoid the extreme of ‘radical honesty’ that disregards the symbolic value of language or can be used insensitively, as words carry more than literal meaning.
28. Express Positive Feelings Proactively
Make an effort to proactively express positive feelings, appreciation, and respect for others, rather than holding back due to social reservations, as this can significantly improve relationships and well-being.
29. Contribute to Improve Lives
Find meaning and purpose in life by striving to contribute in ways that improve others’ lives as much as possible, and for humanity as a whole, by safeguarding its long-term future.
8 Key Quotes
You can have the absolute best of intentions. You can be really meaning to do good. But then, firstly, you can often just fail to have any sort of impact at all. But then, secondly, even within those programs that work well, there's often just a vast discrepancy between those that are good, those that are just actually making a positive impact in the world, and the very, very best, the ones that are, like, really transformative.
William MacAskill
If I can cure one person of blindness or one person of a broken leg or cure a thousand people of a life-threatening illness where they would have certainly died otherwise, I think it's just clear intuitively what does the more good.
William MacAskill
Because you could be a very bad charity, but still extremely good at fundraising and marketing. And when you donate, you don't get the feedback of, did this actually have an impact or not?
William MacAskill
Passion tends to result from mastery of a subject or mastery of an area, rather than vice versa.
William MacAskill
Philanthropy is really that, like, last line of defense, as it were, where you've both got a kind of market failing and a democratic failing.
William MacAskill
I mean, I just think all people are born equal, they have equal moral value. It's through sheer luck that I was born into a rich country and a poor country.
William MacAskill
The sad truth is just the world's a very complex place, and it's just, it's much easier to do harm than you might think.
William MacAskill
I think the kind of meaning of the meaning of life or the purpose of life today for the kind of whole civilization is to kind of carry this very fragile candle of humanity, like, and pass it on, onto the next generation, where it's totally non, um, you know, non-trivial that we'll be able to do that.
William MacAskill
3 Protocols
Career Exploration for Long-Term Impact (80,000 Hours)
William MacAskill- Take a couple of years or a few years out to try a bunch of different types of work.
- Work out what is the area where you can spend the remaining 75,000 hours of your career effectively.
- Recognize that this approach is a more reliable way of discovering what you can become passionate about and extremely good at than simple introspection.
Improving Probability Assessment and Reducing Overconfidence
William MacAskill- Engage in a 'calibration training game' (available online) that asks numerous questions.
- For each question (e.g., 'how many potatoes were grown in Idaho in 2012?'), provide a range for your answer.
- Aim to give a range such that you are correct about 90% of the time.
- Practice to better understand and internalize what different probability statements (e.g., 80% likely, 99% likely) truly mean, thereby improving your sense of fallibility.
Effective Problem Solving and Goal Achievement
William MacAskill- For any given task or goal, first investigate who else has attempted to do this.
- Find out what information is available on how to do it well (e.g., publicly available information, books).
- If information is not readily available, identify and ask for advice from people who have successfully achieved the same thing.
- Figure out what people are actually looking for in that context and tailor your approach accordingly, rather than trying to 'reinvent the wheel'.