Executive summary: The author shares how they introduced Effective Altruism (EA) to friends unfamiliar with the movement by explaining its core ideas, personal impact, and diverse community, encouraging more open conversations and engagement with EA.
Key points:
After attending EA Global conferences and wearing EA-branded clothing, the author received unexpected interest, prompting them to write a public explainer for friends unfamiliar with EA.
The post introduces EA through two central questions: “How do we know we’re doing good?” and “How do we do good better?”, emphasizing evidence-based charity evaluation and moral impartiality.
The author outlines EA’s roots in cost-effectiveness (e.g., global health interventions like anti-malaria nets) and moral philosophy (e.g., valuing all lives equally, longtermism).
Examples are given of EA-aligned actions—such as kidney donation, pandemic prevention, AI safety, and global health careers—some of which the author or their friends pursue.
The author highlights the diversity and global reach of the EA community, describing it as ambitious, nerdy, kind, and open to critique.
They encourage others to explore EA via recommended resources (like 80,000 Hours and local groups) and offer to have personal conversations to make the ideas more accessible.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The author shares how they introduced Effective Altruism (EA) to friends unfamiliar with the movement by explaining its core ideas, personal impact, and diverse community, encouraging more open conversations and engagement with EA.
Key points:
After attending EA Global conferences and wearing EA-branded clothing, the author received unexpected interest, prompting them to write a public explainer for friends unfamiliar with EA.
The post introduces EA through two central questions: “How do we know we’re doing good?” and “How do we do good better?”, emphasizing evidence-based charity evaluation and moral impartiality.
The author outlines EA’s roots in cost-effectiveness (e.g., global health interventions like anti-malaria nets) and moral philosophy (e.g., valuing all lives equally, longtermism).
Examples are given of EA-aligned actions—such as kidney donation, pandemic prevention, AI safety, and global health careers—some of which the author or their friends pursue.
The author highlights the diversity and global reach of the EA community, describing it as ambitious, nerdy, kind, and open to critique.
They encourage others to explore EA via recommended resources (like 80,000 Hours and local groups) and offer to have personal conversations to make the ideas more accessible.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.