WHAT: A book like “Strangers Drowning”, but focused on the “E” of EA rather than the “A” of EA.
WHY: narrative can be such a tremendous force in changing people’s lives. It’s often more powerful than argument (even for brainy people).
There’s already a lot of world literature and newspaper stories on people who have been tremendously altruistic. There is much less literature about people who have been tremendously altruistic and—this is key—have been motivated by their altruism to care about effectiveness and listen to the evidence.
I’d love to have a book with biographies or stories that traces—in narrative rather than argument—people whose love for others has pushed them to care about effectiveness, care about evidence, and generally care about a results-oriented outlook that focuses on what ‘really works at the end of the day’. (Note that the book should not generally be about people who care about effectiveness and evidence—but only about people who have deliberately chosen to do so out of altruism (rather than, say, out nerdiness)).
Possible biographies could include: Florence Nightingale, Ignaz Semmelweis, Deng Xiaoping, figures from EA and utilitarianism, some theologians in the 2nd world war who pragmatically looked towards ending the killing (Bonhoeffer, Barth, etc?), etc. Not vouching for this list of examples at all—it’s more to give an idea.
By the way, creating such a book could be a project for EAs with a different skillset than the cliché EAs.
WHAT: A book like “Strangers Drowning”, but focused on the “E” of EA rather than the “A” of EA.
WHY: narrative can be such a tremendous force in changing people’s lives. It’s often more powerful than argument (even for brainy people).
There’s already a lot of world literature and newspaper stories on people who have been tremendously altruistic. There is much less literature about people who have been tremendously altruistic and—this is key—have been motivated by their altruism to care about effectiveness and listen to the evidence.
I’d love to have a book with biographies or stories that traces—in narrative rather than argument—people whose love for others has pushed them to care about effectiveness, care about evidence, and generally care about a results-oriented outlook that focuses on what ‘really works at the end of the day’. (Note that the book should not generally be about people who care about effectiveness and evidence—but only about people who have deliberately chosen to do so out of altruism (rather than, say, out nerdiness)).
Possible biographies could include: Florence Nightingale, Ignaz Semmelweis, Deng Xiaoping, figures from EA and utilitarianism, some theologians in the 2nd world war who pragmatically looked towards ending the killing (Bonhoeffer, Barth, etc?), etc. Not vouching for this list of examples at all—it’s more to give an idea.
By the way, creating such a book could be a project for EAs with a different skillset than the cliché EAs.