The why and how of effective altruism
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0:01 - 0:04There's something that I'd like you to see.
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0:04 - 0:07(Video) Reporter: It's a story that's deeply unsettled
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0:07 - 0:09millions in China:
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0:09 - 0:11footage of a two-year-old girl
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0:11 - 0:15hit by a van and left bleeding in the street by passersby,
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0:15 - 0:19footage too graphic to be shown.
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0:19 - 0:21The entire accident is caught on camera.
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0:21 - 0:24The driver pauses after hitting the child,
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0:24 - 0:28his back wheels seen resting on her for over a second.
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0:28 - 0:32Within two minutes, three people pass two-year-old Wang Yue by.
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0:32 - 0:36The first walks around the badly injured toddler completely.
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0:36 - 0:39Others look at her before moving off.
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0:42 - 0:43Peter Singer: There were other people
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0:43 - 0:45who walked past Wang Yue,
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0:45 - 0:47and a second van ran over her legs
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0:47 - 0:50before a street cleaner raised the alarm.
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0:50 - 0:55She was rushed to hospital, but it was too late. She died.
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0:55 - 0:59I wonder how many of you, looking at that,
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0:59 - 1:03said to yourselves just now, "I would not have done that.
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1:03 - 1:05I would have stopped to help."
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1:05 - 1:09Raise your hands if that thought occurred to you.
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1:09 - 1:12As I thought, that's most of you.
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1:12 - 1:14And I believe you. I'm sure you're right.
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1:14 - 1:17But before you give yourself too much credit,
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1:17 - 1:19look at this.
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1:19 - 1:23UNICEF reports that in 2011,
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1:23 - 1:276.9 million children under five
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1:27 - 1:32died from preventable, poverty-related diseases.
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1:32 - 1:34UNICEF thinks that that's good news
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1:34 - 1:38because the figure has been steadily coming down
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1:38 - 1:42from 12 million in 1990. That is good.
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1:42 - 1:45But still, 6.9 million
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1:45 - 1:50is 19,000 children dying every day.
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1:50 - 1:53Does it really matter
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1:53 - 1:56that we're not walking past them in the street?
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1:56 - 2:01Does it really matter that they're far away?
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2:01 - 2:04I don't think it does make a morally relevant difference.
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2:04 - 2:07The fact that they're not right in front of us,
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2:07 - 2:09the fact, of course, that they're of a different nationality
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2:09 - 2:13or race, none of that seems morally relevant to me.
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2:13 - 2:14What is really important is,
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2:14 - 2:19can we reduce that death toll? Can we save
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2:19 - 2:24some of those 19,000 children dying every day?
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2:24 - 2:27And the answer is, yes we can.
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2:27 - 2:30Each of us spends money
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2:30 - 2:32on things that we do not really need.
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2:32 - 2:34You can think what your own habit is,
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2:34 - 2:37whether it's a new car, a vacation
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2:37 - 2:39or just something like buying bottled water
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2:39 - 2:41when the water that comes out of the tap
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2:41 - 2:44is perfectly safe to drink.
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2:44 - 2:45You could take the money you're spending
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2:45 - 2:47on those unnecessary things
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2:47 - 2:50and give it to this organization,
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2:50 - 2:53the Against Malaria Foundation,
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2:53 - 2:55which would take the money you had given
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2:55 - 2:59and use it to buy nets like this one
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2:59 - 3:02to protect children like this one,
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3:02 - 3:07and we know reliably that if we provide nets,
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3:07 - 3:10they're used, and they reduce the number of children
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3:10 - 3:13dying from malaria,
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3:13 - 3:15just one of the many preventable diseases
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3:15 - 3:19that are responsible for some of those 19,000 children
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3:19 - 3:23dying every day.
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3:23 - 3:25Fortunately, more and more people
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3:25 - 3:28are understanding this idea,
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3:28 - 3:31and the result is a growing movement:
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3:31 - 3:34effective altruism.
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3:34 - 3:38It's important because it combines both the heart and the head.
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3:38 - 3:40The heart, of course, you felt.
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3:40 - 3:43You felt the empathy for that child.
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3:43 - 3:47But it's really important to use the head as well
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3:47 - 3:52to make sure that what you do is effective and well-directed,
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3:52 - 3:56and not only that, but also I think reason helps us
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3:56 - 4:00to understand that other people, wherever they are,
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4:00 - 4:03are like us, that they can suffer as we can,
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4:03 - 4:06that parents grieve for the deaths of their children,
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4:06 - 4:08as we do,
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4:08 - 4:12and that just as our lives and our well-being matter to us,
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4:12 - 4:15it matters just as much to all of these people.
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4:15 - 4:18So I think reason is not just some neutral tool
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4:18 - 4:20to help you get whatever you want.
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4:20 - 4:25It does help us to put perspective on our situation.
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4:25 - 4:26And I think that's why
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4:26 - 4:31many of the most significant people in effective altruism
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4:31 - 4:34have been people who have had backgrounds
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4:34 - 4:39in philosophy or economics or math.
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4:39 - 4:40And that might seem surprising,
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4:40 - 4:41because a lot of people think,
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4:41 - 4:45"Philosophy is remote from the real world;
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4:45 - 4:49economics, we're told, just makes us more selfish,
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4:49 - 4:53and we know that math is for nerds."
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4:53 - 4:55But in fact it does make a difference,
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4:55 - 4:57and in fact there's one particular nerd
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4:57 - 5:02who has been a particularly effective altruist
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5:02 - 5:03because he got this.
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5:03 - 5:07This is the website of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
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5:07 - 5:11and if you look at the words on the top right-hand side,
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5:11 - 5:14it says, "All lives have equal value."
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5:14 - 5:16That's the understanding,
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5:16 - 5:20the rational understanding of our situation in the world
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5:20 - 5:22that has led to these people
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5:22 - 5:27being the most effective altruists in history,
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5:27 - 5:30Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
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5:30 - 5:36(Applause)
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5:36 - 5:40No one, not Andrew Carnegie, not John D. Rockefeller,
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5:40 - 5:43has ever given as much to charity
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5:43 - 5:46as each one of these three,
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5:46 - 5:49and they have used their intelligence
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5:49 - 5:53to make sure that it is highly effective.
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5:53 - 5:56According to one estimate, the Gates Foundation
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5:56 - 6:00has already saved 5.8 million lives
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6:00 - 6:03and many millions more, people, getting diseases
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6:03 - 6:04that would have made them very sick,
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6:04 - 6:07even if eventually they survived.
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6:07 - 6:10Over the coming years, undoubtably the Gates Foundation
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6:10 - 6:13is going to give a lot more,
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6:13 - 6:17is going to save a lot more lives.
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6:17 - 6:21Well, you might say, that's fine if you're a billionaire,
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6:21 - 6:23you can have that kind of impact.
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6:23 - 6:26But if I'm not, what can I do?
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6:26 - 6:30So I'm going to look at four questions that people ask
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6:30 - 6:33that maybe stand in the way of them giving.
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6:33 - 6:35They worry how much of a difference they can make.
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6:35 - 6:39But you don't have to be a billionaire.
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6:39 - 6:42This is Toby Ord. He's a research fellow in philosophy
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6:42 - 6:44at the University of Oxford.
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6:44 - 6:48He became an effective altruist when he calculated
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6:48 - 6:50that with the money that he was likely to earn
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6:50 - 6:53throughout his career, an academic career,
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6:53 - 6:59he could give enough to cure 80,000 people of blindness
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6:59 - 7:01in developing countries
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7:01 - 7:04and still have enough left
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7:04 - 7:08for a perfectly adequate standard of living.
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7:08 - 7:10So Toby founded an organization
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7:10 - 7:14called Giving What We Can to spread this information,
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7:14 - 7:18to unite people who want to share some of their income,
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7:18 - 7:21and to ask people to pledge to give 10 percent
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7:21 - 7:23of what they earn over their lifetime
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7:23 - 7:27to fighting global poverty.
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7:27 - 7:29Toby himself does better than that.
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7:29 - 7:33He's pledged to live on 18,000 pounds a year --
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7:33 - 7:36that's less than 30,000 dollars --
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7:36 - 7:39and to give the rest to those organizations.
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7:39 - 7:45And yes, Toby is married and he does have a mortgage.
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7:45 - 7:49This is a couple at a later stage of life,
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7:49 - 7:52Charlie Bresler and Diana Schott,
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7:52 - 7:53who, when they were young, when they met,
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7:53 - 7:56were activists against the Vietnam War,
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7:56 - 7:58fought for social justice,
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7:58 - 8:01and then moved into careers, as most people do,
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8:01 - 8:05didn't really do anything very active about those values,
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8:05 - 8:08although they didn't abandon them.
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8:08 - 8:10And then, as they got to the age at which many people
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8:10 - 8:13start to think of retirement, they returned to them,
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8:13 - 8:17and they've decided to cut back on their spending,
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8:17 - 8:22to live modestly, and to give both money and time
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8:22 - 8:27to helping to fight global poverty.
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8:27 - 8:30Now, mentioning time might lead you to think,
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8:30 - 8:33"Well, should I abandon my career and put all of my time
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8:33 - 8:37into saving some of these 19,000 lives
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8:37 - 8:38that are lost every day?"
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8:38 - 8:41One person who's thought quite a bit about this issue
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8:41 - 8:44of how you can have a career that will have
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8:44 - 8:47the biggest impact for good in the world is Will Crouch.
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8:47 - 8:50He's a graduate student in philosophy,
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8:50 - 8:54and he's set up a website called 80,000 Hours,
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8:54 - 8:56the number of hours he estimates
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8:56 - 8:59most people spend on their career,
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8:59 - 9:01to advise people on how to have the best,
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9:01 - 9:03most effective career.
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9:03 - 9:05But you might be surprised to know
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9:05 - 9:08that one of the careers that he encourages people to consider,
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9:08 - 9:10if they have the right abilities and character,
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9:10 - 9:15is to go into banking or finance.
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9:15 - 9:19Why? Because if you earn a lot of money,
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9:19 - 9:21you can give away a lot of money,
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9:21 - 9:23and if you're successful in that career,
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9:23 - 9:26you could give enough to an aid organization
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9:26 - 9:31so that it could employ, let's say, five aid workers
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9:31 - 9:34in developing countries, and each one of them
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9:34 - 9:36would probably do about as much good
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9:36 - 9:37as you would have done.
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9:37 - 9:40So you can quintuple the impact
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9:40 - 9:44by leading that kind of career.
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9:44 - 9:47Here's one young man who's taken this advice.
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9:47 - 9:48His name is Matt Weiger.
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9:48 - 9:52He was a student at Princeton in philosophy and math,
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9:52 - 9:56actually won the prize for the best undergraduate philosophy thesis
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9:56 - 9:58last year when he graduated.
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9:58 - 10:01But he's gone into finance in New York.
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10:01 - 10:03He's already earning enough
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10:03 - 10:07so that he's giving a six-figure sum to effective charities
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10:07 - 10:11and still leaving himself with enough to live on.
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10:11 - 10:15Matt has also helped me to set up an organization
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10:15 - 10:18that I'm working with that has the name taken
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10:18 - 10:20from the title of a book I wrote,
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10:20 - 10:21"The Life You Can Save,"
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10:21 - 10:24which is trying to change our culture
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10:24 - 10:28so that more people think that
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10:28 - 10:30if we're going to live an ethical life,
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10:30 - 10:33it's not enough just to follow the thou-shalt-nots
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10:33 - 10:36and not cheat, steal, maim, kill,
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10:36 - 10:39but that if we have enough, we have to share some of that
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10:39 - 10:42with people who have so little.
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10:42 - 10:45And the organization draws together people
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10:45 - 10:47of different generations,
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10:47 - 10:48like Holly Morgan, who's an undergraduate,
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10:48 - 10:50who's pledged to give 10 percent
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10:50 - 10:52of the little amount that she has,
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10:52 - 10:54and on the right, Ada Wan,
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10:54 - 10:57who has worked directly for the poor, but has now
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10:57 - 11:01gone to Yale to do an MBA to have more to give.
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11:01 - 11:03Many people will think, though,
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11:03 - 11:07that charities aren't really all that effective.
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11:07 - 11:08So let's talk about effectiveness.
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11:08 - 11:10Toby Ord is very concerned about this,
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11:10 - 11:13and he's calculated that some charities
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11:13 - 11:16are hundreds or even thousands of times
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11:16 - 11:18more effective than others,
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11:18 - 11:21so it's very important to find the effective ones.
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11:21 - 11:26Take, for example, providing a guide dog for a blind person.
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11:26 - 11:29That's a good thing to do, right?
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11:29 - 11:31Well, right, it is a good thing to do,
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11:31 - 11:34but you have to think what else you could do with the resources.
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11:34 - 11:38It costs about 40,000 dollars to train a guide dog
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11:38 - 11:40and train the recipient so that the guide dog
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11:40 - 11:44can be an effective help to a blind person.
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11:44 - 11:48It costs somewhere between 20 and 50 dollars
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11:48 - 11:51to cure a blind person in a developing country
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11:51 - 11:53if they have trachoma.
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11:53 - 11:56So you do the sums, and you get something like that.
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11:56 - 11:58You could provide one guide dog
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11:58 - 12:00for one blind American,
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12:00 - 12:03or you could cure between 400
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12:03 - 12:07and 2,000 people of blindness.
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12:07 - 12:11I think it's clear what's the better thing to do.
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12:11 - 12:14But if you want to look for effective charities,
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12:14 - 12:16this is a good website to go to.
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12:16 - 12:21GiveWell exists to really assess the impact of charities,
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12:21 - 12:23not just whether they're well-run,
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12:23 - 12:25and it's screened hundreds of charities
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12:25 - 12:29and currently is recommending only three,
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12:29 - 12:33of which the Against Malaria Foundation is number one.
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12:33 - 12:36So it's very tough. If you want to look for other recommendations,
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12:36 - 12:39thelifeyoucansave.com and Giving What We Can
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12:39 - 12:41both have a somewhat broader list,
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12:41 - 12:44but you can find effective organizations,
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12:44 - 12:48and not just in the area of saving lives from the poor.
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12:48 - 12:51I'm pleased to say that there is now also a website
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12:51 - 12:55looking at effective animal organizations.
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12:55 - 12:57That's another cause that I've been concerned about
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12:57 - 12:59all my life, the immense amount of suffering
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12:59 - 13:01that humans inflict
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13:01 - 13:05on literally tens of billions of animals every year.
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13:05 - 13:07So if you want to look for effective organizations
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13:07 - 13:09to reduce that suffering,
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13:09 - 13:12you can go to Effective Animal Activism.
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13:12 - 13:15And some effective altruists think it's very important
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13:15 - 13:19to make sure that our species survives at all.
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13:19 - 13:23So they're looking at ways to reduce the risk of extinction.
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13:23 - 13:25Here's one risk of extinction that we all became aware of
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13:25 - 13:29recently, when an asteroid passed close to our planet.
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13:29 - 13:32Possibly research could help us not only to predict
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13:32 - 13:34the path of asteroids that might collide with us,
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13:34 - 13:37but actually to deflect them.
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13:37 - 13:40So some people think that would be a good thing to give to.
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13:40 - 13:42There's many possibilities.
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13:42 - 13:44My final question is,
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13:44 - 13:47some people will think it's a burden to give.
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13:47 - 13:48I don't really believe it is.
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13:48 - 13:51I've enjoyed giving all of my life
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13:51 - 13:52since I was a graduate student.
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13:52 - 13:55It's been something fulfilling to me.
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13:55 - 13:57Charlie Bresler said to me that he's not an altruist.
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13:57 - 14:01He thinks that the life he's saving is his own.
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14:01 - 14:04And Holly Morgan told me that she used to battle depression
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14:04 - 14:07until she got involved with effective altruism,
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14:07 - 14:10and now is one of the happiest people she knows.
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14:10 - 14:12I think one of the reasons for this
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14:12 - 14:15is that being an effective altruist helps to overcome
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14:15 - 14:18what I call the Sisyphus problem.
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14:18 - 14:21Here's Sisyphus as portrayed by Titian,
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14:21 - 14:24condemned by the gods to push a huge boulder
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14:24 - 14:26up to the top of the hill.
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14:26 - 14:29Just as he gets there, the effort becomes too much,
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14:29 - 14:32the boulder escapes, rolls all the way down the hill,
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14:32 - 14:36he has to trudge back down to push it up again,
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14:36 - 14:38and the same thing happens again and again
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14:38 - 14:40for all eternity.
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14:40 - 14:43Does that remind you of a consumer lifestyle,
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14:43 - 14:46where you work hard to get money,
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14:46 - 14:48you spend that money on consumer goods
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14:48 - 14:52which you hope you'll enjoy using?
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14:52 - 14:55But then the money's gone, you have to work hard
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14:55 - 14:58to get more, spend more, and to maintain
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14:58 - 15:01the same level of happiness, it's kind of a hedonic treadmill.
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15:01 - 15:04You never get off, and you never really feel satisfied.
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15:04 - 15:07Becoming an effective altruist gives you
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15:07 - 15:08that meaning and fulfillment.
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15:08 - 15:13It enables you to have a solid basis for self-esteem
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15:13 - 15:17on which you can feel your life was really worth living.
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15:17 - 15:19I'm going to conclude by telling you
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15:19 - 15:21about an email that I received
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15:21 - 15:26while I was writing this talk just a month or so ago.
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15:26 - 15:29It's from a man named Chris Croy, who I'd never heard of.
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15:29 - 15:34This is a picture of him showing him recovering from surgery.
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15:34 - 15:36Why was he recovering from surgery?
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15:36 - 15:40The email began, "Last Tuesday,
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15:40 - 15:44I anonymously donated my right kidney to a stranger.
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15:44 - 15:46That started a kidney chain
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15:46 - 15:50which enabled four people to receive kidneys."
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15:50 - 15:53There's about 100 people each year in the U.S.
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15:53 - 15:56and more in other countries who do that.
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15:56 - 15:58I was pleased to read it. Chris went on to say
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15:58 - 16:01that he'd been influenced by my writings in what he did.
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16:01 - 16:05Well, I have to admit, I'm also somewhat embarrassed by that,
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16:05 - 16:11because I still have two kidneys.
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16:11 - 16:13But Chris went on to say that he didn't think
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16:13 - 16:16that what he'd done was all that amazing,
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16:16 - 16:19because he calculated that the number of life-years
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16:19 - 16:22that he had added to people, the extension of life,
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16:22 - 16:25was about the same that you could achieve
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16:25 - 16:31if you gave 5,000 dollars to the Against Malaria Foundation.
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16:31 - 16:35And that did make me feel a little bit better,
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16:35 - 16:38because I have given more than 5,000 dollars
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16:38 - 16:41to the Against Malaria Foundation
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16:41 - 16:46and to various other effective charities.
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16:46 - 16:47So if you're feeling bad
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16:47 - 16:51because you still have two kidneys as well,
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16:51 - 16:54there's a way for you to get off the hook.
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16:54 - 16:55Thank you.
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16:55 - 17:01(Applause)
- Title:
- The why and how of effective altruism
- Speaker:
- Peter Singer
- Description:
-
If you're lucky enough to live without want, it's a natural impulse to be altruistic to others. But, asks philosopher Peter Singer, what's the most effective way to give? He talks through some surprising thought experiments to help you balance emotion and practicality -- and make the biggest impact with whatever you can share.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 17:19
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The why and how of effective altruism | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for The why and how of effective altruism | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The why and how of effective altruism | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for The why and how of effective altruism | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The why and how of effective altruism | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for The why and how of effective altruism | ||
Joseph Geni added a translation |