Do you think that if GiveWell hadn’t recommended bednets/effective altruists hadn’t endorsed bednets it would have led to more investment in vaccine development/gene drives etc.? That doesn’t seem intuitive to me.
To me GiveWell fit a particular demand, which was for charitable donations that would have reliably high marginal impact. Or maybe to be more precise, for charitable donations recommended by an entity that made a good faith effort without obvious mistakes to find the highest reliable marginal impact donation. Scientific research does not have that structure since the outcomes are unpredictable.
Do you think that if GiveWell hadn’t recommended bednets/effective altruists hadn’t endorsed bednets it would have led to more investment in vaccine development/gene drives etc.? That doesn’t seem intuitive to me.
To me GiveWell fit a particular demand, which was for charitable donations that would have reliably high marginal impact. Or maybe to be more precise, for charitable donations recommended by an entity that made a good faith effort without obvious mistakes to find the highest reliable marginal impact donation. Scientific research does not have that structure since the outcomes are unpredictable.