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Do f*ing better— 6 steps on how to make a large impact on the world
The de facto book for effective altruism, reviewed with my reflections with Vula.
13 min readAug 6, 2023
Preface: I am CTO of Vula — the digital fundraising assistant for African startups and SMEs. It is not a philanthropic venture. It is a VC backed start-up targeted at the fastest growing and most complex business environment.
That is why this book caught my eye. How can we “Do Good Better?”.
TL;DR:
- Emotive things rarely make a difference, effective altruism is a way to be more quantitative about the difference made.
- How to measure difference / impact (QALYs)
- A case for why aid and charity are very impactful, but most impact happens by the top 20% performing charities.
- So what can we do? Work on impactful causes and/or make a large salary and donate a high percentage. So we should be a Doctor? Macaskill says probably not.
- Macaskill’s method to assess your options.
- The surprising case for sweatshops, avoiding fair trade, eating beef and leaving lights on
