The Motivation Series

This resource is out of date. We strongly recommend the EA Handbook instead.

The Motivation Series introduces readers to effective altruism by presenting summaries of key concepts and sharing classic articles from a variety of authors.

This collection of posts explores some of the ideas that motivate people to do as much good as they can, and how they apply across the causes and concerns of the EA movement.

You can learn more about the project and its goals here.


If you’re new to effective altruism, you might also enjoy:

The Drown­ing Child and the Ex­pand­ing Circle

On Caring

Rad­i­cal Empathy

500 Million, But Not A Sin­gle One More

The world is much bet­ter. The world is awful. The world can be much bet­ter.

Do­ing Good Bet­ter: On effec­tive and in­effec­tive altruism

On “fringe” ideas

You have more than one goal, and that’s fine