I can’t recall the last time I read a book in one sitting, but that’s what happened with Moral Ambition by bestselling author Rutger Bregman. I read the German edition, though it’s also available in Dutch (see James Herbert's Quick Take). An English release is slated for May.
The book opens with the statement: “The greatest waste of our times is the waste of talent.” From there, Bregman builds a compelling case for privileged individuals to leave their “bullshit jobs” and tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. He weaves together narratives spanning historical movements like abolitionism, suffrage, and civil rights through to contemporary initiatives such as Against Malaria Foundation, Charity Entrepreneurship, LEEP, and the Shrimp Welfare Project.
If you’ve been engaged with EA ideas, much of this will sound familiar, but I initially didn’t expect to enjoy the book as much as I did. However, Bregman’s skill as a storyteller and his knack for balancing theory and narrative make Moral Ambition a fascinating read. He reframes EA concepts in a more accessible way, such as replacing “counterfactuals” with the sports acronym “VORP” (Value Over Replacement Player). His use of stories and examples, paired with over 500 footnotes for details, makes the book approachable without sacrificing depth.
I had some initial reservations. The book draws heavily on examples from the EA community but rarely engages directly with the movement, mentioning EA mainly in the context of FTX. The final chapter also promotes Bregman’s own initiative, The School for Moral Ambition. However, the school’s values closely align with core EA principles. The ITN framework and pitches for major EA cause areas are in the book, albeit with varying levels of depth.
Having finished the book, I can appreciate its approach. Moral Ambition feels like a more pragmatic, less theory-heavy version of EA. The School for Moral Ambition has attracted better-known figures in Germany, such as the political e
It's a process to recruit billionaires/turn EAs into billionaires, but one estimate was another 3.5 EA billionaires by 2027 (written pre FTX implosion). In the analyses I've seen for last dollar cost effectiveness, they have tended to ignore the possibility of EA adding funds over time. Of course we don't want to run out of money just when we need some big surge. But we could spend a lot of money in the next five years and then reevaluate if we have not recruited significant additional assets. This could make a lot of sense for people with short AI timelines (see here for an interesting model) or for people who are worried about the current nuclear risk. But more generally, by doing more things now, we can show concrete results, which I think would be helpful in recruiting additional funds. I may be biased as I head ALLFED, but I think the optimal course of action for the long-term future is to maintain the funding rate that was occurring in 2022, and likely even increase it.