Effective Altruism terms

March 27th, 2013
ea
The phrases "doing good", "helping people", "making the world a better place", "reducing suffering", "making people's lives better", "helping the needy", and "improving the world" all capture similar ideas. [1] What are other terms? Which should we use? I'm not all that happy with any of them.


[1] A utilitarian might say they're all imprecise ways of getting at "increasing utility", but being easily understood is much more important than precision here, which means avoiding jargon.

Comment via: google plus, facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Where I Donated In 2024

All Grants Fund, Rethink, EA Funds Animal Welfare Fund

via Thing of Things January 17, 2025

2024-25 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, travel, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Overall this was a pretty good year. Highlights …

via Victoria Krakovna January 15, 2025

The ugly sides of two approaches to charity

What's neglected by "magnificent" philanthropy, and by Singerian global poverty focus The post The ugly sides of two approaches to charity appeared first on Otherwise.

via Otherwise January 13, 2025

more     (via openring)