Failed deworming is not causing direct harm. It is still better to give money to ineffective deworming than to do nothing.
Apologies in advance for being nitpicky. But you could consider the counterfactual where the money would instead go to another effective charity. A similar point holds for AI safety outreach: it may cause people to switch careers and move away from other promising areas, or cause people to stop earning to give.
Apologies in advance for being nitpicky. But you could consider the counterfactual where the money would instead go to another effective charity. A similar point holds for AI safety outreach: it may cause people to switch careers and move away from other promising areas, or cause people to stop earning to give.
Sorry if your bar for “reliable good” entails being clearly better than counterfactuals with high confidence, then afaict literally nothing in EA clears that bar. Certainly none of the other Givewell charities clear this bar.
I don’t mean to set an unreasonably high bar. Sorry if my comment came across that way.
It’s important to use the right counterfactual because work for the long-term future competes with GiveWell-style charities. This is clearly the message of 80000hours.org, for example. After all, we want to do the most good we can, and it’s not enough to do better than zero.
It’s important to use the right counterfactual because work for the long-term future competes with GiveWell-style charities
I’m probably confused about what you’re saying, but how is this different from saying that work on Givewell-style charities compete with the long-term future, and also donations to Givewell-style charities compete with each other?
Apologies in advance for being nitpicky. But you could consider the counterfactual where the money would instead go to another effective charity. A similar point holds for AI safety outreach: it may cause people to switch careers and move away from other promising areas, or cause people to stop earning to give.
Sorry if your bar for “reliable good” entails being clearly better than counterfactuals with high confidence, then afaict literally nothing in EA clears that bar. Certainly none of the other Givewell charities clear this bar.
I don’t mean to set an unreasonably high bar. Sorry if my comment came across that way.
It’s important to use the right counterfactual because work for the long-term future competes with GiveWell-style charities. This is clearly the message of 80000hours.org, for example. After all, we want to do the most good we can, and it’s not enough to do better than zero.
I’m probably confused about what you’re saying, but how is this different from saying that work on Givewell-style charities compete with the long-term future, and also donations to Givewell-style charities compete with each other?