Resources
Recommended introductory resources on effective altruism, including videos, books, podcasts and articles.
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Here are a small selection of introductory videos. You can also find hundreds of talks from EA conferences on our YouTube channel.
An introduction to effective altruism
Ajeya Cotra
In one of the best summaries of effective altruism to date, Ajeya Cotra draws from her personal experience and lays out the movement’s key concepts and core beliefs. She discusses emotional reactions to the unfairness of the world, the need to prioritize the interventions that can help the most people (or animals), a framework for determining which interventions are most promising, and goes into depth on a few key causes in particular. If you only have time to watch one video about EA, this is a great choice.
How can we do the most good for the world?
Will Macaskill
“The scientific and industrial revolutions transformed both our understanding of the world, and our ability to alter it. What we need is an ethical revolution, so we can work out: how do we use this tremendous bounty of resources to improve the world?”
The why and how of effective altruism
Peter Singer
If you see a child in mortal peril on the street, surely you have an ethical obligation to help. Why, then, would that obligation not extend to the thousands of children dying every day from preventable diseases? Peter Singer argues that it does, and explores how best to help.
The 4 greatest threats to the survival of humanity
TED-Ed
Dig into the 4 biggest existential risks that threaten the survival of humanity, and explore how we can safeguard our future.
Introduction to the Effective Altruism Ecosystem
Catherine Low
Catherine gives a quick overview of Effective Altruism, what the EA community does, and the ways our community is unique.
The scout mindset
Julia Galef
It can be tempting to adopt a “soldier mindset” where winning arguments is what matters, and opposing evidence must be neutralized with extreme prejudice. But if we want to understand the world well, it pays to have a “scout mindset” and observe the terrain with an open mind.
Starting, proving, & scaling highly cost-effective interventions
Svetha Janumpalli
In this talk, Svetha Janumpalli, the founder and CEO of New Incentives, one of four of GiveWell’s recommended charities, talks about the power of incentives in scaling effective interventions.
What it really takes to found a high impact charity
Joey Savoie
Joey argues that starting an evidence-based charity may be an exceptionally impactful career path. His organisation, Charity Entrepreneurship, has extensive experience training, funding and supporting successful founders. Joey profiles what it takes to succeed and how these traits are not what you might assume.
The last human
Kurzgesagt
Because of the potential size of the future, the most important thing about our actions today might be their impact on future generations. This simple-sounding idea has some surprising moral implications.
Presenting big ideas and complex data
Edouard Mathieu