I generally agree with the above. I love GiveWell. However, I think doing your own charity evaluation has more benefits than just learning skills and becoming more engaged. A couple of extra benefits, off the top of my head:
-Doing your own charity evaluation means you can challenge GiveWell when you think they’ve gotten something wrong.
-Encouraging people other than GiveWell to do charity evaluation means we’re in a better position if GiveWell ever stops performing to its current standards (eg if 2-3 key staff members left at the same time).
-Investigating a particular area in depth which GiveWell hasn’t spent much time on recently, like education, could give the community access to useful information (maybe one of these charities is more effective than we think; maybe this list helps us pick a charity to donate to on behalf of our teacher friend; maybe it provides useful advice for EA Quebec’s donors!)
Good point, I wasn’t fully considering that. I think Michael Plant’s recent investigation into mental health as a cause area is a perfect example of the value of independent research—mental health isn’t something . While I still think it’s going to be extremely difficult to beat GiveWell in i.e., evaluating which deworming charity is most effective, or which health intervention tends to be most effective, I do think independent researchers can make important contributions in identifying GiveWell’s “blind spots”.
Mental health and education both could be good examples. At this point, GiveWell doesn’t recommend either. But they’re not areas that GiveWell has spent years building expertise in. So it’s reasonable to expect that, in these areas, a dedicated newcomer can produce research that rivals GiveWell’s in quality.
So I’d revise my stance to: Do your own research if there’s an upstream question (like the moral value of mental suffering, the validity of life satisfaction surveys, or the intrinsic value of education) that you think GiveWell might be wrong about. Often, you’ll conclude that they were right, but the value of uncovering their occasional mistakes is high. Still, trust GiveWell if you agree with their initial assumptions on what matters.
I generally agree with the above. I love GiveWell. However, I think doing your own charity evaluation has more benefits than just learning skills and becoming more engaged. A couple of extra benefits, off the top of my head:
-Doing your own charity evaluation means you can challenge GiveWell when you think they’ve gotten something wrong.
-Encouraging people other than GiveWell to do charity evaluation means we’re in a better position if GiveWell ever stops performing to its current standards (eg if 2-3 key staff members left at the same time).
-Investigating a particular area in depth which GiveWell hasn’t spent much time on recently, like education, could give the community access to useful information (maybe one of these charities is more effective than we think; maybe this list helps us pick a charity to donate to on behalf of our teacher friend; maybe it provides useful advice for EA Quebec’s donors!)
Good point, I wasn’t fully considering that. I think Michael Plant’s recent investigation into mental health as a cause area is a perfect example of the value of independent research—mental health isn’t something . While I still think it’s going to be extremely difficult to beat GiveWell in i.e., evaluating which deworming charity is most effective, or which health intervention tends to be most effective, I do think independent researchers can make important contributions in identifying GiveWell’s “blind spots”.
Mental health and education both could be good examples. At this point, GiveWell doesn’t recommend either. But they’re not areas that GiveWell has spent years building expertise in. So it’s reasonable to expect that, in these areas, a dedicated newcomer can produce research that rivals GiveWell’s in quality.
So I’d revise my stance to: Do your own research if there’s an upstream question (like the moral value of mental suffering, the validity of life satisfaction surveys, or the intrinsic value of education) that you think GiveWell might be wrong about. Often, you’ll conclude that they were right, but the value of uncovering their occasional mistakes is high. Still, trust GiveWell if you agree with their initial assumptions on what matters.