What is Effective Altruism?
Some efforts to improve the world can be much more impactful than others. The eradication of smallpox, the abolitionist movement, and the Green Revolution are just a few examples which illustrate what’s possible when people come together to solve pressing problems. But those projects are few and far between. At the other end of the spectrum, many well-intended initiatives are ineffective or even counterproductive.
Discerning between the good and bad is the perennial challenge every generation faces, and yet the coming century is poised to be the most consequential yet: how we maneuver challenges over the next hundred years may drastically affect the trajectory of humankind.
Put simply, EA is both a philosophy and a community of people centered around the desire to do the most good possible — given the world’s limited resources and our own limited time, energy, and talents.
The EA philosophy tries to use reason and evidence to work out how to have the greatest impact;
The EA community is the group of people who share this mission, many of whom have organized their careers around doing good, among whom methods and practical wisdom (which now constitute a considerable literature) are shared.
