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Which causes deserve the most support?

Both brothers say long, slow crises deserve more attention than they get.

Axis: highest-impact global causes first ... causes close to home / personal connection

Positions by date: 33 records in 33 videos. The position was refined (2010), never reversed, in these records.

John

date how position video
2008-09-11 first on record John says choosing between vital needs is a hard question that more money would not remove; donors should share the tough choices. A Video about Videos 00:01:05
2009-12-13 restate John argues malaria research deserves far more money than eyelash research, which a purely market-driven drug industry will not provide. Eyelash Malaria 00:01:13
2010-03-19 refine John says people, himself included, give to diseases close to home (breast cancer) over bigger public-health threats (cholera), a failure to be truly utilitarian. Foreign John Green Books and the Ultimate Concern 00:01:35
2011-11-02 restate John says the community will have to prioritise its resources to address the biggest problems humanity faces. LECTROJOG! 00:01:07
2014-08-26 restate John calls raising calories per cultivated hectare not the sexiest problem but one of the most important. Food Is Weird: Understanding Agriculture in the Developing World 00:07:01
2014-11-19 restate John: money for highly efficient organizations fighting global poverty and disease attracts matching donations and decreases a known cause of world suck. The Future of the Project for Awesome: Pizzamas Day 8 00:02:48
2018-01-23 restate John does not say stop responding to emergencies: it is a both-and proposition, respond to emergencies and focus more attention and resources on long-term problems. On Emergencies 00:02:53
2018-10-09 restate John says measuring health in DALYs makes clear that better mental illness treatment, and access to it, should be a priority for every country's healthcare system. How Big a Problem is Mental Illness? 00:02:26
2018-12-07 restate John argues we have not prioritized children nearly enough. BABIES! The 2018 Project for Awesome is here… 00:01:40
2022-04-19 restate John says raising money for crises matters, but so do priorities, accepting that others have different ones: no one can go deep on everything, and depth makes you more valuable. How do you cross the Sad Gap? 00:02:55
2023-07-18 restate John argues that what tuberculosis needed was for people in the rich world to pay attention, and feels that is beginning to happen, not mainly because of him, though he will not shut up about it. Tuberculosis Fighters Have a Posse 00:03:24
2023-12-05 restate John says such trials need better funding: public money and private donations have funded many in cancer but more is needed, and neglected diseases like TB need massive investment. MASSIVE Tuberculosis News 00:04:22
2024-01-16 restate In a comment John says Partners In Health works in the US and the Navajo Nation, but as an international community Nerdfighteria wants to keep an international focus. The Bank of Nerdfighteria creator comment
2024-06-18 restate When PIH says so, you say yes; everyone faces versions of this, with many crises and no one able to address all of them. The Tea 00:05:45
2024-09-10 restate John thinks ending tuberculosis deaths would be the greatest achievement in human history, far harder and more impactful than ending smallpox. The world will change. 00:04:52
2024-09-27 restate John says experts, including ones hired by the Global Fund, agree a greater share should go to tuberculosis and the overall pie must get much bigger. Is It 2010? IT'S A PARTS VIDEO 00:04:30
2024-11-01 restate John says each of us can only care about so many important things; attending to one problem means ignoring another, which he struggles with. Working Through a Crisis with My Brother 00:07:47
2024-11-19 restate John believes the Lesotho tuberculosis project can make a huge difference there and globally, by proving that investing in tuberculosis drives rates down dramatically and quickly. Let's Talk about Money 00:03:26
2025-03-25 restate Asked what to focus on if TB were eliminated, John says TB is by no means the only disease of injustice: cancer is one too. Taylor, Dr Pepper, and My Anxiety Strats: It's Question Tuesday 00:03:24
2025-11-04 restate John says the great risk of caring too much about something like TB is starting to see one form of injustice as all forms of injustice, which is not true. The Real Question 00:00:29
2025-11-13 restate John's takeaway: protecting kids from TB is a question of prioritization and political will, decided by all our governments together. Fighting TB in Kids: A Discussion with Doctors without Borders 00:54:10
2025-11-24 restate John says his heart wants money to go to AFC Wimbledon but his head is stronger: it should go to Partners In Health, since Wimbledon, a third-tier English team, does some good but not that much. Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John 00:40:05
2025-11-25 restate John says this is also why there are so many resources for health problems common in rich countries but not for tuberculosis. Poverty Is Expensive 00:05:21
2026-02-13 restate John says it is a barometer of the ill health of our social orders that tuberculosis still thrives though curable for 70 years; it is a glaring injustice and a lens on other injustice, which is why he wrote about it. Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! 01:44:52
2026-02-14 restate John says using the money the Project for Awesome has raised to hire community health workers and midwives in Lesotho and Sierra Leone makes a lot more sense than spending $30 million on a yacht or a private plane. Project for Awesome 2026 part 3! 01:09:15
2026-02-14 restate John says nobody deserves to die in childbirth, and cutting maternal mortality also makes children likelier to go to school and be healthy, raising the health of a whole community. Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! 00:06:26
2026-02-24 restate John says hard days lie ahead and the risk remains, but if there is one thing to bet on, it is children having the chance to be healthy and grow up with healthy parents. Risk Is a Privilege 00:04:22

Hank

date how position video
2017-12-15 first on record Hank says this costs money, but ventures that it may be one of the best things society could possibly spend money on. Why Big Solutions Fail 00:02:25
2018-01-19 restate Hank knows Partners In Health adds value to the world, doing amazing work with passion and intelligence, so he would rather they have his Bitcoin. Many Years Ago, Someone Gave Me a Whole Bitcoin...then I lost it. 00:02:53
2022-02-25 restate Hank endorses what John has said for years: it is easy to focus on what happens now and ignore long-term crises, which feel normal and so get solved more slowly than they could. When You Can't Fix Everything… 00:00:29
2025-10-31 restate Hank says people not caring much about such a problem is the main reason it exists; if it were more visible and salient, it would have been solved. We Did It… 00:03:46
2026-01-09 restate Hank's second, more important point: focusing on nearer-term goals may actually be more likely to deliver the better future. There is Only One Source of Value 00:02:55
2026-02-20 restate Hank says our minds struggle to focus on something bad that has been that way a long time, even one of the world's biggest disasters, if it is not sudden news. What We Actually Did. 00:00:58

Background

date how position video
2014-10-07 background John asks why no one calls Batman out for spending all his resources on crime in Gotham instead of global poverty, habitat destruction or climate change. (playful, hedged) I Kind of Hate Batman 00:02:39