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PlayPumps Failed Despite Good Intentions
- Will recounts the PlayPumps story to show well-intentioned ideas can fail disastrously in practice.
- Investigations revealed PlayPumps were ineffective, dangerous, and unwanted by communities, prompting major funders to withdraw.
Charity Impact Is Fat‑Tailed
- Charity impact follows a fat-tail distribution where the best interventions far outperform typical ones.
- This creates huge differences in effectiveness between charities, not just marginal gaps.
A Graveyard Conversation Sparked Giving What We Can
- Will describes meeting Toby Ord in an Oxford graveyard where they talked for five hours about effective giving.
- That conversation led to founding Giving What We Can and a search for the most effective charities.