Co-written with Peter Singer. This is cross-posted from Project Syndicate, where it original appeared. If we can prevent great suffering at no cost to ourselves, we ought to do so. That principle is widely accepted and difficult to dispute. Yet Western governments are neglecting an opportunity to reduce the great misery caused by mental illness, even though the net cost would be nil. The evidence for this claim comes from recent research by a team of economists at the London School of Economics. The team, directed by Richard Layard, drew on data from four major developed countries ..read more

The footage from my talk at EAGxAustralia. Here’s the abstract: Effective altruists want to do as much good as possible. But how should we measure how much good different outcomes do? So far, effective altruists have tended to use income and standardised health metrics (QALYs and DALYs) as the measures of what matters. This talk is primarily a plea for subjective well-being (SWB) – individuals’ ratings of their happiness and life satisfaction – to be taken seriously. I argue that SWB scores should replace (or, at the very least, supplement) the current measures of the good. I then set out the ..read more

Co-written with Peter Singer. This is cross-posted from Project Syndicate, where it originally appeared. PRINCETON – Just a little more than 24 hours after the fire that seriously damaged Notre-Dame de Paris, donations to rebuild the 850-year-old cathedral had passed €1 billion ($1.1 billion). Most of the money is coming from some of France’s wealthiest people. Untec, the national union representing construction economists in France, has indicated that the cost of the reconstruction is likely to be between €300 and €600 million, far less than the amount raised. France ..read more

[This was originally posted on the EA forum] I argue that mental illness may be one of the world’s most pressing problems. Here is a summary of the key points: Not only does mental illness seem to cause as much, if not more, total worldwide unhappiness than global poverty, it also seems far more neglected. Effective mental health interventions exist currently. These have been improving over time and we can expect further improvements. I estimate the cost-effectiveness of a particular mental health organisation, StrongMinds, and claim it is (at least) four times more effective per dollar than ..read more

60 word summary: I spent two and half years trying to start a startup I thought might do lots of good. It failed. I explain what happened, how it went wrong and try to set out some relevant lessons for others. Main lesson: be prepared for the fact you might find the experience mostly stressful and have nothing obviously useful come of it. Contents: Introduction What was Hippo How did we get started? How did things fall apart? What would I do differently? Potential lessons for aspirant effective entrepreneurs Conclusion Introduction It’s often said EAs should be trying new things that ..read more

Abstract: All plausible moral theories agree increasing the happiness of currently existing people during their lifetimes is intrinsically good. Despite, or perhaps because of, this agreement, surprisingly little work has been done to find out what the most effective ways to improve world happiness are. In this short talk, I share my current conclusions and identify where more research is needed. I claim that, contrary to the apparent consensus within EA, poverty and physical health should not be the top priorities. I suggest we focus directly on mental health, pain, and what I call ‘ordi ..read more

Abstract: If we want to maximise happiness we should establish what the full range of options are first and then pick the best ones. As no comprehensive list of options seems to exist I take a first pass at creating one in this chapter. This provides a check-list to ensure we don’t overlook any possibilities. I point out governments and ‘effective altruists’, private individuals who seek to do as much good as possible, tend only to focus on a subset of possible interventions: they try to improve things like wealth, health and education, rather than attempting more direct ways to make peop ..read more

I’ve now passed the D. Phil. In the (unlikely) event anyone wants to read it, it can be found here. Here’s the abstract: “Suppose you want to do as much good as possible. What should you do? According to members of the effective altruism movement—which has produced much of the thinking on this issue and counts several moral philosophers as its key protagonists—we should prioritise among the world’s problems by assessing their scale, solvability, and neglectedness. Once we’ve done this, the three top priorities, not necessarily in this order, are (1) aiding the world’s poorest people by prov ..read more

The footage from my talk at EAGxAustralia. Here’s the abstract: Effective altruists want to do as much good as possible. But how should we measure how much good different outcomes do? So far, effective altruists have tended to use income and standardised health metrics (QALYs and DALYs) as the measures of what matters. This talk is primarily a plea for subjective well-being (SWB) – individuals’ ratings of their happiness and life satisfaction – to be taken seriously. I argue that SWB scores should replace (or, at the very least, supplement) the current measures of the good. I then set out t ..read more

Co-written with Peter Singer. This is cross-posted from Project Syndicate, where it originally appeared. PRINCETON – Just a little more than 24 hours after the fire that seriously damaged Notre-Dame de Paris, donations to rebuild the 850-year-old cathedral had passed €1 billion ($1.1 billion). Most of the money is coming from some of France’s wealthiest people. Untec, the national union representing construction economists in France, has indicated that the cost of the reconstruction is likely to be between €300 and €600 million, far less than the amount raised. France’s gilets jaunes (y ..read more