Looking Glass Universe - 2018-12-07
Vote for GiveWell on the Project for Awesome website!: http://www.projectforawesome.com/watch?v=YMxtImOzyGw And more info about GiveWell, including how they do their assessments, is here: https://www.givewell.org/how-we-work/process Many people have the view that charity is either ineffective or corrupt. In this video we discuss why it certainly doesn't have to be that way -if we take a more scientific approach to doing good. (Just to be clear though, this isn't meant to disparage other charities and/or Project for Awesome. I personally am a fan of Partners in Health (one of the main P4A charities) as well as many others that GiveWell doesn't currently list as it's top charities.) (Ad revenue from this video will go to GiveWell, by the way) Reading recommendation: If you enjoyed this video and want to know more, I really recommend Doing Good Better, by William Macaskill. I don't fully agree with every aspect of it (in particular, it takes a very utilitarian approach, even though you can take other moral views and come to similar conclusions). But it is a really excellent introduction to this topic, which is called Effective Altruism. Citations: My account of Michael Kremer's work comes from Doing Good Better, but the original papers are below. Just to be clear though, this doesn't mean that textbooks, flipcharts and more teachers are never useful. Just that they were not in these specific places and times tested. General overview: "Randomized Evaluations of Educational Programs in Developing Countries: Some Lessons" www.jstor.org/stable/3132208? Textbooks: "Many Children Left Behind? Textbooks and Test Scores in Kenya" www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/textbooks-and-test-scores-kenya Flipcharts: "Retrospective vs. prospective analyses of school inputs: the case of flip charts in Kenya" www.poverty-action.org/study/flipcharts-and-school-inputs-kenya Price of deworming tablets: www.evidenceaction.org/dewormtheworld/ The study I cited with the 108 health interventions: Jamison, Dean, et al. (eds.). 2006. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries (second edition) Oxford University Press But the results are discussed in a paper available online (it's a good read!): https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/1427016_file_moral_imperative_cost_effectiveness.pdf FINALLY, if you've got this far, I think you'll really enjoy this: https://80000hours.org/
I was a little surprised to see that Give Directly is still amoung the most effective uses of charity money in terms of DALYs.
The charity Give Directly, just literally gives people money to do with as they see fit, and then checks in with them later to see how they are doing.
And guess what, for the poorest people in the poorest countries, they are usually smart enough to spend their 1000$ more effectively than most charities do, in spending the money on their behalf instead.
Yeah, it’s surprising since we’re so used to the idea that we’re coming in to help people and we know best how. I love the idea that actually, if you give people the ability to improve their situation, they do know what to do.
@Looking Glass Universe Because you can't fully know the life of someone and especially not of hundreds, thousands ... millions of people. https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/131/4/1973/2468874#84614767 this is a study they did and they found that people spent the money on food security and longterm valuable assets like a metal roof etc. At some point, most people in the west as well will need to receive free money. Automation and AI will make some people just way too powerful in a finite world that planet Earth is and they will own almost everything there is to own. It's going to be either a shared economy or a total dictatorship of a few tech Quadrillionaires.
It's not effective https://ssir.org/articles/entry/givedirectly_not_so_fast#
@SuperResistant You heavily generalized that article. I just read it and basically it suggests ways they might be able to improve, but in the end no definite conclusions can be made about the charity's effectiveness because it's relatively new.
@BTDnGames It says that it is less effective. I did not say that it doesn't work or that it cannot become effective one day.
Amazing video, effective altruism is the best way to make a difference
Amazing video and great example of the scientific approach :)
Thank you very much :)
That's awesome.. I've wanted something like that for a long time..
They’re amazing! I had no idea they existed either until recently.
Marcel Torretta I've been looking as well. All charities had at least a shady component. I'll definitely look into this.
Wow...incredible
Would have funded c) (didn't see the results yet).
Hey really nice Video. I guess you found the exact Problem in most "Social-movements".
Really good :).
Amazing video! I'm so proud of you. I don't even know you, but I'm proud of you <3
Thank you so much, that’s very kind :)
This is awesome! Thanks for this.
P4A video!!!
Once I'm done with mine, I'll watch this!
Motivation!
Put the link here once you’re done!!
Because you asked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRyLNtOAtdA
Great video, thanks so telling us about GiveWell!
No worries at all- they’re amazing!
0:59 *intervention
Thanks for the video. This really gives you hope when you start to doubt whether doing charity will ever be effective. I hope I will be able to apply this.
Thank you!
Best p4a 2018 video I've watched. Yay science!
Thank you so much!!
Amazing video! DFTBA!
DFTBA ;)
Thanks! very clear explanation!
Thank you :)!
Question: would a quantum theory that takes into account gravity and dark energy but not spin be succesful?
Very interesting video, thanx!!
Thank you!!
This is awesome. Thanks for letting everyone know about the existence of this. It would be great if GiveWell expands to encourage other charities to adopt this. Testing could be part of the guidelines, but that'd be expensive
Great video, as always!
Also, Alice in Red is a wonderful character design!
Voted!
Thank you so much!
I agree! One day all this testing and independent evaluation will be completely self evident for every charity. We need to somehow speed up the process toward that.
Wow! Didn't see this one coming! :p Awesome! And So Nice You've used your Very Skills to Help Others :) 👏👏👏👏 I go to like of course and very probably, make a Donation ;) Best Regards dear Looking Glass Universe :)
I've followed the first link but don't understand and not sure what is that, maybe because not English tongue.
I just want a button to make and donation of my choice, not having to make a choice between articles I even don't understand what that is and need to spend 10 min to try to figure out and not having a Clear Answer.
Why been just Simple and provide a Simple Button for those who were not even supposed to spend any time more than rapidly check your video because of other engagements on the line :/
If Yiu just provide a link towards a simpler mean of donation, I would be Most Than Happy ^_^
@Didier Khwartz I'm so sorry! That site is quite confusing... I've changed the link to this one http://www.projectforawesome.com/watch?v=YMxtImOzyGw
Apologises again! But thank you so so much for considering donating. That's awesome!!
do you have discord an email? somewhere were we could talk?
I think I've been led to a way of disproving quantum mechanics randomness based on multiverse (which is still not forensics but at least something worth to be said)
That's awesome!
They are :D
Amazing video!
Thank you :)!
Do you have a video about:
Realism, locality, and “free will”?
Got my vote =)
Yay! Hi!!
This is something I've been wondering for a while, and I've been leery of donating as a result even though I wanted to. Thank you for this, now I can more confidently put my money where my mouth is. :)
Great and clear video. DFTBA!
DFTBA :)
This has to be taught in schools. It might help the current "it must be true, because I believe so much in it" sentiment.
Yes! I definitely suffer from that often, and yet having a good process for challenging your own beliefs is important. I’m trying to implement it more in my life now.
You convinced me.
I’m so glad :) please share the video of you think it will change anyone else’s mind too.
Thanks for this...
Am someone who never donates because I believed its corrupt and simply lines the pockets of degenerates.
I’m really glad that this changes your mind- not all charities are like that :)
I like You.
hang on, how would they measure that someone would live 300 extra healthy years of life?
If you are genuinely confused: It is 300 years distributed between multiple people. If you were being sarcastic: lol
Now Professor banerjee and Professor Esther wins nobel for exactly for rct!
I donate to Wikipedia. I doubt if studies can evaluate its worth in DALYs, but it sure as hell makes the world an even playing-field.
That’s great! Wikipedia provides a huge service for such a small amount of money- a very effective organisation
U are amazing
Fantastic video! I was hoping some effective altruist charities would be put up in P4A this year! Thank you
Yay! There seems to always be some for the AMF, which is great. But I wanted to use this video to spread the idea of effective altruistic itself.
Sharing like crazy!!
Thank you so much!
Somebody found 80000hours.org haha. Good stuff. Lots of work to do out there. Lots of ways we can elevate each other. Good on you using your platform for such a bold call to action.
Have you given much thought to the ethical arguments against charity: that donating to a cause that has a systemic solution obviates the need to implement that solution?
I only began to think of it when evaluating charities to fight homelessness, and a large portion of the money raised is spent raising more money. Homelessness is an issue with uncertainty at its core, and a charity that relies on the capricious nature of donors is doomed on principle. A more stable (and almost certainly government implemented) system would be needed, but nothing would likely happen before the problem reached a boiling point. The theory then is that charity ameliorates the issue just to the point that it doesn't boil over, helping people in the short term, but preventing permanent change. Sorry, I'm rambling now.
Love the vids, physics and otherwise!
-Shawn
You should do a Q N A video
What would you want to ask?
LOL, I was really surprised when the only choices were the 3 you gave. Maybe it's because I lost hope in the education system, or maybe because I learned that the best way to help people succeed in becoming educated is helping them improve internally, like giving them confidence, making them healthy, and personally teaching them how to organize time and work well.
Trick question? No longer watching.
:P
This has nothing to do directly with this video, I just decided to post this general comment to your most recent video: I absolutely love the tone and production style of your videos. Your explanations are very thoughtful and have some really refreshing originality to them. I can tell you naturally think a lot about how you would explain things to yourself and then make an admirable effort to bring yourself down to the level of a hypothetical newcomer when writing your scripts. I think it really shows and it benefits the people seeing these topics for the first time. I'm actually currently a math PhD student myself, and my research is also in quantum computing! I don't know about you but I'm the only person really doing quantum at my school's math department, so it's really interesting to hear how eerily similar your way of thinking about things is to my own. Are you in a math department or a physics department?
Thanks so much for the very very kind comment! I really appreciate that :)
That’s so cool that you’re also studying quantum computing! What topic? And (feel free not to answer) where are you doing it? I’m also in a maths department :)
Terribly sorry for the super late response. My adviser and I haven't exactly settled on a topic yet. I'm actually at a school which is more focused on logic and set theory, and my adviser is a logician (we're learning it together) and we're hoping to bring together those two things somehow. We've just about finished scoping out the whole field though, minus the information theory side of things. I'd be interested to hear about your topic as well. If you'd like to add me on discord or something I'd tell you what school I go to, it's just probably a bad idea to dox myself in a youtube comment. If you have discord my name is tex#2637
@Tex Talks Hey, no worries at all, I know the feeling. I don't have a discord though unfortunately. But logic combined with quantum computing stuff would be so cool! When you have a more concrete idea of what you're going to do then please let me know :)
how did you not notice you wrote "invention"? :P
also, minor philosophical gripe: what do you dislike about the utilitarian approach(desc)? does it not cooperate very well with this scientific approach? what other moral theory would you even apply? few focus so extensively on outcomes, which is what can be scientifically investigated well, as does utilitarianism.
Oops! I made this video in a mad rush to get it done for P4A.
About utilitarianism: I’m not purely a consequentialist. I think consequences are important, so I am sympathetic to utilitarianism.. But I don’t, for example, think the ends justifies the means. And pure utilitarianism also has those counterintuitive/ just plain bad conclusions sometimes. But the thing is, you can motivate the Effective Altruism agenda using many different moral value systems. This is a strong argument for why it’s a good thing to do. That’s why I didn’t bother picking a specific moral system to use in this video either, it doesn’t matter much!
i always find that position on utilitarianism very strange... often people forget that while the ends justify the means, the means contribute to the specifics of the ends and are thereby considered by utilitarianism. a very common example of this would be say the belief killing people we assume would be detremental to society would be sensible to a utilitarian but that doesnt stop to consider the fear this would induce and thus increase overall suffering.
as for other moral theories, science doesnt work all too well with say kantian deontology, as it demands every action be informed by a universal rule. universality is impossible to verify scientifically though since we can of course never consider all possible circumstances and can only ever offer good(and decidedly still useful) guesses.
@Looking Glass Universe Eliezer Yudkowsky has an interesting blog post about how you can actually argue that ends shouldn't justify the means even from a consequentialist view point, if you take into account that humans aren't perfect: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/K9ZaZXDnL3SEmYZqB/ends-don-t-justify-means-among-humans
Super interesting article! Thank you very much.
As for the point that the means contribute to the final result, and hence they’re part of the final ends: you’re of course correct! I only disagree with a more naive interpretation of utilitarianism.
oh my, this article opens up a whole array of thoughts i had on that topic. arguments along these lines basing on the fallability and fundamental self interest of humans have lead me to conclude that the demand any one human be moral is utterly ridiculous. rather institutions, like this charity or (IN THEORY, in practice not so much)governments need to be established to counteract this. in the case of governments this often then takes on a very deontological form(aka the law) as one can of course not enforce humans being moral in the utilitarian sense as they are incapable of that. though the law is then more well informed as it is supposed to be created by a system(ultimately similar to an AI, maybe just involving limited humans parts or the like) which has the information necessary to make reasonable utilitarian decisions.
(c) I was wrong, but then I didn’t anticipate the schools not having students due to illness.
c was actually a really good guess (despite being a wrong one). At least in South Africa we have rural schools with hundreds of learners in a single classroom. It's a major problem.
I would have guessed c) too! But it depends a lot on the context what will be effective. That’s why you need to test it :)
Nice video.
Though I'll have to draw attention to the fact that aids to corrupted places (especially warzones) empowers the local corrupted ruling class and helped them maintain their rules for longer.
Aid to a warzone goes to guys with guns first. Aid workers become unsuspecting logisticians of fighters. Instead of the war resolving quickly (because of exhaustion), they drags on for years and years.
Adriaan the problem with that notion is such effects weren't unknown. Studies were performed to draw such conclusion.
The problem is two folds. First, when you try to apply the knowledge of such studies to say "let's not give them aid now" is always countered by emotions: "how can you be so cold and deny the starving war orphans food". Second, when the images of suffering in the warzone goes out, there are cries to "do something". That something is usually aid or a ceasefire, which both are known to prolong conflicts. When one tries to apply the "let's not do it now because X, Y, Z" they are also countered by emotions.
this applies quite a bit in various african countries where democracy isn't real, you have elections but fraud is done by the party in power, and external people to "survay" the elections doesn't help as fraud didn't go down when they were there.
Yes, it’s a huge problem, and unfortunately, the reality can be that it’s best not to send the aid. It’s extremely sad, but it can be the right thing. I know because my parents escaped a war, but that war lasted for far far too long in part because of aid given being diverted to arms.
This is why direct aid to the governments of these nations doesn't work, but giving directly to individuals in those countries can work. Whether it is giving people mosquito nets, vermicidal pills, vitamin A supplements, or literally cash.
@Abram Thiessen The particular problem with that is: before you can deliver all of those things to the "individuals", you need to get past some rather hostile locals who may or may not have guns. Generally it's cash lubricants along the way that pays for "protection". Also, if a large group with guns is nearby, there is nothing to stop them from confiscating the supplies given to the locals at gunpoint and sell it somewhere else for cash. It doesn't even have to be guns, you know, just some tough looking guys who intimidate the locals. If you dump a load of it at the border, what stops the big guy in town to sell it and pocket the cash?
Supposedly the term "technicals", which refers to a sort of improvised combat vehicle, usually a Toyota pickup truck with a heavy weapon (machine gun, auto cannons, rockets, anti-tank missile) on the back, come from the practice of NGOs who can not hire private security, paying local gunmen to protect them; the money to do so was called "technical assistance grants" in accounting books.
The net effect might be more or less the same: you are giving money to non-productive sections of the society, who without such aid, would have had to change the ways.
"best possible utilization of available resources for betterment of humanity", the essence of charity is realizable through this idea of scientific intervention. but only glitch that i find here is that rating agencies should never indulge in accepting donations for charities this can have some negative out come in long run. Fully support you and every body involve in charity,, Jazak-Allah
Thank you :)
This came up in my feed. Is that Vi Hart?
No, not quite :)
If you want any comparison at all, then a more adorable Vi Hart!
@Looking Glass Universe sorry. I just did a bit of.googling i was watching just before falling asleep. You sound a lot like her and the speech patterns are similar too.
A more adorable Vi Hart - love.it. I'll have a poke about and sub
I guess we really need a superintelligent AI to fix how our society works. I can't even imagine how we can all by ourselves figure out all impacts these seemingly small changes have
Yup, that would be what we need to do this perfectly. Instead we'll just aim to do it where we can.
@Looking Glass Universe Too bad there is no proper hierarchy to people making such decisions. Too many humans, all working asynchronously, following lead of those who don't fully understand situation they are actually handling.
If we were a bit more aware of our weaknesses compared to hypothetical equivalent combined mindpower, all caused by extreme miscommunication from person to person, then it maybe would have been possible to work around those issues by, I don't know, trying to express your opinion in best way possible and hearing through even weirdest thoughts of others. Unfortunately though, we don't live in utopia where everyone is self-reflective.
Yeah, talking about self-reflection; seems like I've gotten way off topic into direction of general ranting on humankind. Oh well, whatever
i lived in africa for quite a while, what i saw was: almost all of the funds given to help was diverted to someone's pocket, there aren't enough schools for the first school years which makes it impossible for teachers to fail students, thus they pass without knowing, then by the time they reach 8th grade there is a country wide test, which most of them fail, then they pass by a slim margin in the next year but because their foundation is shaky they never actually learn as much as they should, also i saw much less parents talking to their children and playing with them there, which also has an effect on the development of children.
the teachers aren't bad but because most don't have books the students endup spending too much time just writing which means they get bored quickly.
That’s incredibly sad. When was this, and in what country?
it was in mozambique, i was there for 10 years up until 4 years ago
Thanks a lot for sharing this insight. I’m sorry it is that way.
Charity is not useless of course and it would be the only thing to to were there nothing else to to do in this wretched world. However charity is not efficient at all compared to what financing anti-imperialist groups would achieve. We need to stop exploiting and waging wars to the 3rd world. Direct wars, proxy wars or even interventionist groups of agitation and destabilisation. If we stop imperialism, malaria is a done thing of the past. Every country that became socialist and thus truly independent from the US/EU was able to see its DALYs rise incredibly.
Imagine what would happen now to Cuba for instance if the US was to find a way to topple the socialist government and put a capitalist pro-US dictator/president there, do you think Cuba would still have the record 15% of GDP in education or the highest doctor/patient ratio of the world? It would certainly not, it would be like any other Caribbean or Central American nation that is subjected to US capitalist rule : miserable and unhealthy with a shitty education.
So charity is nice when you want band-aid solutions that do nothing to solve deeper problems, socialism or at least anti-imperialist is what you need.
Btw before you tax any of this as nonsense propaganda, most of this is admitted one way or the other by the World bank, the WHO or even the CIA.
Looking Glass Universe - 2019-10-21
Congratulations to Professor Kremer (who features in this video in Mad Hatter form) and Professors Duflo and Banerjee (who wrote Poor Economics, which you must read) for winning the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics. Their work on RCTs in charity have changed the discussion around philanthropy. They were such worthy recipients, and I was so excited about it!
Zigmund Forrest - 2020-01-19
Crazy coincidence, I was just reading the section in Poor Economics about this RCT when I stumbled across this video and your channel!
Looking Glass Universe - 2020-01-20
@Zigmund Forrest It's such a wonderful book! Enjoy :)