Larissa MacFarquhar

I really wanted to like this book, and the subject of altruism - how much of it is purely selfless, how much of it is driven by self-interest conscious or unconscious - is something I am extremely interested in. And MacFarquhar does cover some interesting points associated with this. But I found the prose so plodding in places - especially the real-life examples she writes about - that it made the book annoying to read. Most of those sections read like something written by a not so talented high schooler.

I also found those examples - which are half of the book - were very superficial. There was very little examination of the unintended consequences of the choices people made, or how the people they were helping felt about it. I thought that the author could have gone a lot deeper and done a lot more with the fascinating topic she chose to write about.

While he is by no means perfect, I will chose to read someone like Peter Singer on this topic in future rather than this author.… (altro)

This book was put together in a creative way; it wasn't just philosophy and it wasn't just case studies, it was both, but interspersed chapter-by-chapter, sometimes multiple chapters of one followed by one chapter of the other, or vice versa.

MacFarquhar is fascinated by extreme altruists, or as she likes to call them, "do-gooders." She interviews a wide variety of them and lets them tell their stories, sometimes directly with their own words, sometimes through her. In between, she ponders what we owe to others vs. ourselves, and how we each answer that question differently, and what we lose - as well as gain - when we put others' needs above our own. "Others" in all these contexts means those who are neither ourselves NOR our family members, nor even our friends, acquaintances, or neighbors - the do-gooders chronicled here are all dedicated to helping strangers.

Personal interest: One case study involved a family that adopted 22 children, hailing from none other than my home state, in Barre, Vermont.

Enjoy her interview here with Tyler Cowen:
https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/tyler-cowen-larissa-macfarquhar-writ...… (altro)