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Givewell is incredibly transparent. Imo the proper way to use givewell is to first decide on your definition of good and then read their reports on the differen
by HDThoreaun 3y ago
Givewell is incredibly transparent. Imo the proper way to use givewell is to first decide on your definition of good and then read their reports on the different charities. If you just want to minimize death you can use givewell to figure out which charities do that most effectively. If you want to maximize qualys you'll find that givewell's analysis points to different causes. Of course you can use givewell's definition of good and just let them donate to their top charities, but the real value is all the white papers they publish which allow you to make informed decisions about how to maximize your own definition of good.
- sanderjd 3y agoWell, agree to disagree on "the real value". I think your way of using it is incredibly valuable, but I think the more valuable thing is the ability to trust their recommendations, because that's a lot more scalable. For instance, if they only published the reports, refusing to make any recommendations, and directing people to use them only as a resource for their own research, then their impact would be orders of magnitude lower, because far fewer people would actually do that. But if they only published their recommendations, without all the research and transparency, then they would not have the credibility as a trustworthy specialist to delegate one's research to. Both things are important.