Talk:The Life You Can Save

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I welcome all constructive criticism Tesseract2 (talk) 04:14, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

When I have any, if I time I will advance it. --Gibbzmann (talk) 11:33, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Tag

The article is written like a review or essay. Lots of personal reflections and summaries of the book but few cites, hence the tag. Cloonmore (talk) 02:25, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

I actually do appreciate some of the POV language you nailed. I did, however, bring back the bottled water image, now referencing givewell's estimates more overtly. I have also removed the "essay" tag now that the summaries have been cited as coming directly from the book. I have kept the tag asking for additional references, since I agree it would probably be better to reference the stats on these issues more directly than just through the book.

-Tesseract2 (talk) 03:13, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

The quickie fix of scattering a few duplicate citations to the book does not remedy the article's identified problems and its essay style of prose, hence I have restored the tag. Cloonmore (talk) 03:45, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Please provide some examples of what you are finding essay-like or "personal reflection". I think I have summarized the book accurately, but I could be wrong. If there are many relevant examples I will keep the tag until I (or someone) have sorted them out, otherwise I need to remove unjustified tags.-Tesseract2 (talk) 11:43, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

My efforts at editing it should give some clue: POV statements, use of "we", "our" and "us", the appearance of promotion Singer's views, directly linking Singer's website in the first sentence, a dearth of citations, bad prose, etc. There are a multitude of issues. Cloonmore (talk) 12:10, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

How-To tag

All or parts of the sections "Singer's New Standard of Giving" and "Singer's Seven Steps" read like a how-to guide to giving the Singer way. Should probably be deleted or substantially rewritten. Cloonmore (talk) 01:26, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

I agree, and I will replace it with prose when I get a chance. At that point I will remove the (corresponding?) how-to tag, which you will always be able to re-add if my re-write is not successful.-Tesseract2 (talk) 15:21, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Water bottle savings

I have again tried to make the reasoning (original simile provided by Singer) more clear in the comments. Have I yet addressed your concern, Cloonmore?-Tesseract2 (talk) 15:21, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Some proposed changes

Information to be added or removed:

New Section: 10th Anniversary Edition

In December 2019, an updated and revised 10th Anniversary Edition of The Life You Can Save was released. The new edition features substantial changes, including updated facts and figures, case-studies from organizations and individuals working to end poverty, and new ways for readers to get involved. Like the original edition, the new book systematically addresses the most frequent objections raised in response to the argument that we have an ethical duty to help those less fortunate than ourselves. It also includes a new foreword (written by TV producer Michael Schur) and afterword (written by Charlie Bresler, Executive Director of the nonprofit The Life You Can Save).

To encourage people to get involved with anti-poverty efforts, 10th Anniversary Edition of The Life You Can Save can be downloaded for free as an e-book or audiobook on The Life You Can Save's website. The audiobook is narrated by celebrity supporters including Kristen Bell, Stephen Fry, Paul Simon, Natalia Vodianova, and Marc Evan Jackson.

Updates to Reception

Add to paragraph about Gates: Bill and Melinda Gates called the book "a persuasive and inspiring work that will change the way you think about philanthropy… and shows us we can make a profound difference in the lives of the world's poorest."

Update to Singer's Seven Steps:

Change website that's referenced from .com to .org, and clarify that the suggested pledge is at least 1% of their income. Revised copy:

According to the author, there are several steps that one can take to become a part of the solution to end world poverty. The book recommends visiting the website www.thelifeyoucansave.org, taking a "giving pledge" (Singer argues it is a commitment device), and using the "Charity Impact Calculator" to help decide which organization(s) to donate to.[1]

The author asks the reader to calculate at least 1% of their income and then donate it. Singer offers a more precise suggested percentage of income to donate, using a sliding scale, that can be determined through The Life You Can Save's pledge calculator. [1] Singer further suggests taking steps to foster a culture of giving (using social networks while staying positive and avoiding the emotion of guilt due to cognitive dissonance).[1] He goes on to offer other ways to promote a culture of giving.[1] Singer maintains that the last, important step of the effective giving process is to feel good about making a difference. He argues that too much guilt may result in inaction, dooming the poor.[1]

Revised copy for Impact section

After the release of the book, Peter Singer founded the organization The Life You Can Save. This nonprofit is devoted to providing information about and promoting participation in activities that reduce poverty and economic inequality. The organization also encourages people to publicly pledge a percentage of their income to highly effective aid organizations and gives recommendations for about twenty of such charities. In 2014 the number of people who had pledged publicly reached 17,000.[8] The Life You Can Save, a registered charity in the US, has raised over $27 million for its recommended charities between its founding in 2013 and 2019. The organization's Executive Director is Charlie Bresler, who was formerly President of The Men's Wearhouse. The Life You Can Save is responsible for producing and promoting the 10th anniversary edition of the book. In 2019, The Life You Can Save Australia was registered as a charity in Australia, These nonprofits aim to help the global poor by raising significantly more funds for highly effective anti-poverty charities than they spend on their own operations. The US non-profit One for the World [2] was established in 2014 to inspire college students to take Singer's suggested 1% pledge, with the idea of beginning to donate at least this portion of their salaries once they have graduated and begun working. As of mid-2019, One for the World was active in universities in the US, Canada and Australia. [9] At that time, their members had donated nearly $400k to effective causes and had over $1m of annualized pledges committed. [10] Singer's thought-experiment about the drowning child featured in the book formed the basis of choral music that has been performed by Södra Latin Chamber Choir (conducted by Jan Risberg)[11][12] and Choate Chamber Chorus.[13]

Explanation of issue:

These edits update and clarify information which had grown stale. The most important change is adding information about the new 10th anniversary edition of The Life You Can Save (the book), and clarifying the differences between the new edition and the original book. I have also updated information about The Life You Can Save (the nonprofit), which was out of date. Please note that I work for the nonprofit. If other editors (who do not have this COI) think it is appropriate, I think it would be very helpful to create a separate page for the nonprofit to provide disambiguation between it and the book (especially since there are now two editions of the book, which may add to confusion). Thank you!

References supporting change:

New 10th Anniversary edition section: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/the-book/ New 10th Anniversary edition section (Michael Schur foreword):https://lithub.com/michael-schur-on-peter-singers-moral-challenge-to-the-rest-of-us/ New 10th Anniversary edition section (celebrity audiobook narrators): https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/decade-of-sharp-reduction-in-extreme-poverty-by-peter-singer-2019-12 Impact section (financial impact): The Life You Can Save's 2018 Annual Report: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Annual-Report-2018-The-Life-you-can-Save.pdf and The Life You Can Save's 2019 Annual Report (forthcoming)

Impact section (Australian nonprofit): https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/5d22177eba533181aca2a5faf84c8959

Wasthiker (talk) 22:21, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

I doubt that an article about the organization would pass WP:Notability. The organization would need significant coverage in at least two reliable, independent, secondary sources. WeyerStudentOfAgrippa (talk) 02:11, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

The Gates paragraph is already unsourced. It would definitely need a reference before including a quote. WeyerStudentOfAgrippa (talk) 02:33, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

I added a source to the Gates paragraph, but I don't see how the proposed quotation above would add any valuable information—that's about as close to a content-free quotation as I have ever seen, although it does make a good standard template for a book blurb: "a persuasive and inspiring work that will change the way you think about X, and shows us we can make a profound difference in X."

I agree with WeyerStudentOfAgrippa that information about the organization should go in a separate article that would need to pass WP:Notability. There is already an external link to the organization's website.

I marked the edit request as answered. Biogeographist (talk) 22:03, 27 March 2020 (UTC)