I get a lot of email. Most is encouraging, but now and then I get an email from a reader irate that one of my articles didn’t speak to them personally, so they write me a scathing critique. A common t
Jump down to the end if you want the download links. Two of my recent posts were meant to highlight clear, actionable things we can do to defeat procrastination – whether it’s general life and environ
Almost four years ago, I pledged with Giving What We Can . Members pledge 10% of their incomes to the best charities they can find (with students and those with no income pledging 1% of their spending
Published in Power Books · 7 min read · Feb 4, 2018 -- How strongly I recommend it and why? : 5/5 When I decide to rate a book a 5/5, its because of two primary reasons. First, I deeply resonate with
Want to start a startup? Get funded by Y Combinator . November 2012 The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startupideas. It's to look for problems, preferably problems you haveyourself
How often do you make predictions (either about future events, or about information that you don't yet have)? If you're a regular Less Wrong reader you're probably familiar with the idea that you shou
The most comprehensive case that has ever been made for why nearly everyone should become a polymath in a modern knowledge economy. “Jack of all trades, master of none.” The warning against being a ge
In this 2014 talk, the Future of Humanity Institute's Nick Bostrom discusses the concept of crucial considerations and how we can use it to maximize our impact on the long-term future. This is a trans
What is the definition of Effective Altruism? What claims does it make? What do you have to believe or do, to be an Effective Altruist? I don’t think that any of these questions make sense. It’s not s
In the October 2016 EA Newsletter , we discussed Will MacAskill’s idea that discovering some important, but unaddressed moral catastrophe—which he calls “ Cause X ”—could be one of the most important
Kicking Ass with Money is much like healthy eating and joyful living. It’s a series of daily habits that get you ahead , rather than a one-time heroic effort that fixes all your problems so you can go
It has been argued that it is strategically optimal for EA groups to focus on community building rather than direct work [1] . The rationale behind this approach is very sensible, drawing attention to
Capital in the Twenty First Century by Thomas Piketty was widely recognized as a very important book when it came out in 2013. Yet somehow now, in 2018, I rarely encounter people who have learned the
The main goal of this approach to running an EA local group is to identify, attract, and develop top talent–and help them have more impact. I think EA local groups should focus on this because they ha
Talking about your giving feels... weird. And granted, I'm British, so I've been brought up in a culture of perpetual awkwardness, but I also think there are two more universal reasons why talking abo
CN: Reference to suicide in section 8. You should try to do more good in the world because it’s the right thing to do. Unfortunately, this isn’t always sufficient motivation for people to act accordin
Let’s face it: while money isn’t everything, not having enough of it certainly isn't much fun. I want to show how you can still have a lot of altruistic impact without a big budget, something that has
Subscribe to the Hubstaff blog Why is it important to test your startup idea? Picture this: You’re about to embark on a trip and are holding a one-way ticket . Other than a sense of your general direc
How is your journey towards understanding Farnam Street’s latticework of mental models going? Is it proving useful? Changing your view of the world? If the answer is that it’s going well that’s good.
Is this you? Are you making other feel like this? Group chat is like being in an all-day meeting with random participants and no agenda. In 2006 we launched Campfire, the first modern SAAS group chat
Validate Your Solution Let’s say at this point you’ve finished step one and determined that your startup idea solves a painful problem. How valuable is that solution? Enter: Question two on your start
Solve Important Problems Take a look around at the products and services you are currently using and surrounded by. Why are they there? Well, it’s because they are solving a problem or filling a need
So, you've decided to start a business, even though you're young and don't have much experience. That's okay -- in fact, it's better than okay. There are a ton of advantages to starting a business in
One of the funniest and most implausible things in movies is the grand speech by the general, usually the film's protagonist, in front of thousands of soldiers in the moments just before a critical ba
Published in JamesClear.com · 3 min read · Oct 24, 2014 -- With well over 50 billion dollars to his name, Warren Buffett is consistently ranked among the wealthiest people in the world. Out of all the
Weight loss is one of the most popular topics at MyFitnessPal — and we’re here to help. For starters, you’ve got to believe in yourself and realize losing weight requires small changes you can stick t
We’ve been told for decades that dietary fat makes us gain weight, yet research suggests refined carbohydrates are to blame. It’s time to turn the food pyramid upside down. Let’s examine the truth abo
Carbohydrates are controversial among people trying to lose weight . Because individual carbohydrate needs aren’t one-size-fits-all, we’ve put together an informational guide to help you optimize your
Protein is necessary for many things. Whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, recover from a tough workout, feel more satiated at mealtime or simply maintain good health, it’s important to get a
Are you afraid of fat? Don’t be. In addition to making food taste good, fat plays an important role in a healthy, balanced diet. Here we cover the basics about fat and how it affects health goals. FAT
Last week the Boston Effective Altruism group had a discussion on self-care for altruists. I've written about the topic before , but I wanted to share some of the more practical advice people had. Thi
There is no question that success for the entrepreneur starts with a breakthrough (or at the very least great) product or service. Yet too often, entrepreneurs fall into the “field of dreams” mentalit
Recently, we found ourselves in motivational seminars at our respective places of employment. Both events preached the gospel of happiness. In one, a speaker explained that happiness could make you he
Scalable pricing is a powerful tool to grow revenue in a SaaS or software business. It allows you to capture more of the revenue that your customers are willing to pay, without putting off smaller cus
The Big Idea The Big Idea: The biggest takeaway from the book Actors Cannot See What is Obvious to Observers "The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people's mistakes than ou
Concepts change the way we think. Before we knew about evolution, we couldn’t explain much of what was going on around us; for example, how there came to be such a diversity of species on earth. We’ve collated a list of some concepts that have changed the way we think about the world that might be…
When we want to improve ourselves, we often pursue dramatic changes with little success. A better idea is to go for small, incremental improvements that add up over time. *** Self-motivated, self-star
We made a fancy PDF of this post (original and G-rated versions) for printing and offline viewing. Buy it here. (Or see a preview .) Yesterday, Elon Musk got on stage at the 2016 International Astrona
S omeone stole $90 million from a company I was involved in. I'm a poor judge of people. The company collapsed. Some things I can't learn. I tend to like people too much. So it's hard for me to be a g
This is why productivity and free time are friends. Published in Better Humans · 4 min read · Sep 1, 2016 -- Often, someone will ask me how they can be productive for eight hours every day. That quest