{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"80,000 Hours Podcast","title":"#87 – Russ Roberts on whether it's more effective to help strangers, or people you know","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":6576,"description":"If you want to make the world a better place, would it be better to help your niece with her SATs, or try to join the State Department to lower the risk that the US and China go to war? \r\n\r\nPeople involved in 80,000 Hours or the effective altruism community would be comfortable recommending the latter. This week's guest — Russ Roberts, host of the long-running podcast EconTalk, and author of a forthcoming book on decision-making under uncertainty and the limited ability of data to help — worries that might be a mistake. \r\n\r\nLinks to learn more, summary and full transcript. \r\n\r\nI've been a big fan of Russ' show EconTalk for 12 years — in fact I have a list of my top 100 recommended episodes — so I invited him to talk about his concerns with how the effective altruism community tries to improve the world. \r\n\r\nThese include: \r\n\r\n• Being too focused on the measurable \r\n• Being too confident we've figured out 'the best thing' \r\n• Being too credulous about the results of social science or medical experiments \r\n• Undermining people's altruism by encouraging them to focus on strangers, who it's naturally harder to care for \r\n• Thinking it's possible to predictably help strangers, who you don't understand well enough to know what will truly help \r\n• Adding levels of wellbeing across people when this is inappropriate \r\n• Encouraging people to pursue careers they won't enjoy \r\n \r\nThese worries are partly informed by Russ' 'classical liberal' worldview, which involves a preference for free market solutions to problems, and nervousness about the big plans that sometimes come out of consequentialist thinking. \r\n\r\nWhile we do disagree on a range of things — such as whether it's possible to add up wellbeing across different people, and whether it's more effective to help strangers than people you know — I make the case that some of these worries are founded on common misunderstandings about effective altruism, or at least misunderstandings of what we believe here at 80,000...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/VO1STE7hN95RRg9QdLo4soV2VhhbR9PF5ZZlRhDYcwE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzQxNDAyLzE2ODM1/NDQ1NDAtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}