William MacAskill

@willmacaskill

Associate Professor of Philosophy, Oxford University. Cofounder of the Centre for Effective Altruism. Author of Doing Good Better.

Oxford
Joined August 2011

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  1. Pinned Tweet

    “The scientific and industrial revolutions transformed both our understanding of the world and our ability to alter it. What we need is an ethical revolution to match.” My TED talk is now live!

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  2. Jan 27

    New podcast out! and I talk about recent work I’ve been doing at the Global Priorities Institute, how likely existential catastrophe is this century, and the culture of EA. It was a fun one!

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  3. Jan 8

    Great podcast -> Yuval Noah Harari on taking AI issues seriously even if AGI is centuries off.

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  4. If you want to double your donation before end of year I recommend you check out A long list of super effective charities to choose from like Malaria Consortium, the Good Food Institute and the Long-term Future Fund. $1.5 million of matching funds!

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  5. Hey, I just unexpectedly got a $50 donation gift card from ! Thanks :) - if you want to encourage effective giving this xmas and do the same check out

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  6. Retweeted
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  7. "It’s quite unhealthy for both you and your community to get in the habit of not looking really hard for the truth — but it is what a lot of activist communities incentivise. So, I’m wary of young people getting involved in activist communities…"

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  8. . has opinions on how effective altruism should evolve. Interview also covers why he now leans towards total hedonistic utilitarianism, & the pros/cons of courting controversy. I enjoyed the post-episode chat between & Arden:

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  9. Retweeted
    2 Dec 2019

    After a full year of planning and work, it's out (and absolutely free): the new revised eBook and celebrity-read audiobook 10th anniversary editions of The Life You Can Save:

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  10. "…you could be the world’s first great anthropologist focussed on effective altruism. Maybe anthropology won’t turn out to be relevant for saving the world, but if it is — you’ll make a huge difference. But it takes a lot of bravery to do that…"

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  11. "I think it was a mistake to not pay for tutoring. In college I was really frugal, and just didn’t value my time enough. If you want to do a PhD, getting tutoring might be the difference between getting into a good programme and a great programme…"

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  12. 9 reasons to apply to grad school right now, and 8 reasons not to (from an effective altruism perspective):

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  13. Latest 80k podcast: "It started when the USSR fell apart and there was a real desire to ensure security of nuclear materials & pathogens, and that scientists with [WMD-related] knowledge could get paid so that they wouldn’t go to countries and sell it..."

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  14. Observer selection effects can be very reassuring sometimes. Even though I've given talks to as few as two people before (one of whom was the respondent), most of you will never know as you weren't there.

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  15. Retweeted

    Ever wondered why traffic seems to go faster in the other lane? And how that relates to the apparent fine-tuning of the universe? Watch my brand new video to find out! Link 👉

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  16. 11 anonymous answers to the question 'What’s the thing people most overrate in their career?' Read here: Here's the start of answer number 9:

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  17. "…people we advise often don’t generate additional options once they’ve received a management consulting offer… However, we think that for people with our ‘longtermist’ view of global priorities, there are often even better options for career capital."

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  18. "It can also be easy to compare yourself to others — but how much impact other people have isn’t relevant to your decisions, or how you should feel about yourself. There will always be someone having more impact than you (with only one exception)…"

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  19. If you've been thinking about increasing your giving, or want to signal your intention to continue your giving into the future, today would be a symbolic day to consider taking the 10% Pledge. It's an amazing community and a wonderful way to live.

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  20. Ten years ago today this was the most-read news article on the BBC. Toby was a minor sensation! "Giving What We Can wants others to pledge at least 10% of their earnings to help tackle poverty in the world."

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  21. Giving What We Can turns 10 today! It’s been a crazy decade... “Since November 2009, we’ve grown from 23 members to more than 4,000. Together, we’ve donated more than $125 million to effective charities, and have pledged over $1.5 billion.”

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