804: How to think about Effective Altruism

Humanize Me

“Hey Bart, I came across an article on Vox talking about the movement known as Effective Altruism, and the fall of one of its star advocates, cryptocurrency exchange owner Sam Bankman-Fried. The guy had lost at least a billion dollars of his clients’ money after he secretly transferred it to a hedge fund he owned, he’s now been arrested for it. But what’s confusing is that his stated goal in life was to do good: he said wanted to make a lot of money in finance so he could give most of it away to good causes, specifically causes identified using Effective Altruism. Paraphrasing from the Vox article: 'Effective altruism is a social movement that’s all about using reason and evidence to do the most good for the most people. … Yet it looks like Bankman-Fried has done a lot of BAD to a lot of people.' On top of this, Bart, I know there have been other criticisms of Effective Altruism, and I was just wondering if you have any thoughts on whether a good humanist - and maybe especially a Humanize Me listener - should be involved in Effective Altruism or whether it’s a dubious proposition these days. Thanks!”