About me

My name is Boris Yakubchik, aka YBoris. In 2012 I quit my Educational Psychology Ph.D. program at Rutgers University. I was a math teacher for some years and in 2016 became a web developer for Forbes. In 2018 I transitioned to Data Science and now work with machine learning.

I am extremely lucky to be living in a country where I am able to earn enough money to provide for all my needs: food, shelter, and clothing, while at the same helping the world’s neediest through monetary donations to the most cost-effective charitable organizations.

Persuaded by various philosophical arguments (e.g. Peter Singer, Peter Unger, Larry Temkin, Dead Baby Currency, etc) I happilly recognize it to be a moral duty to help others in best ways I can. Currently, in the world of vast inequalities, I can best do it through monetary donations to the most cost-effective charitable organizations. For several years I have been donating on a monthly basis, but starting January 2010 I joined Giving What We Can, committing a minimum of 10% of my pre-tax income to charities that do the most good. In choosing those I look at GiveWell which assesses numerous charities based on a reasonable set of explicit criteria.

If you are uneasy about giving a lot of your money, I suggest you try giving small amounts regularly. Most charities allow you to set up a recurring monthly donation. If you work even just 20 hours per week, take what you earn from one hour of that and donate it! You can think that during that one hour of work you are working to help someone else, rather than saving some money to spend on yourself.