Three Cups of Deceit

What Hacker News says

1. IMAYousafSep 2021
   I would look at these two links:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Mortenson#60_Minutes_and_...

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Cups_of_Deceit

   thread
2. loser777Sep 2013
   It's interesting to note that Jon Krakauer also wrote Three Cups of Deceit, when Three Cups of Tea was required summer reading for me in high school. Funny how opinions about people change--though in this case it's sad instead of angering.
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3. dragonwriterSep 2013
   > Most charities do all they can to avoid revealing the percentage of their income that goes to the charity's goals. They are under no legal obligation to do this, and there are any number of ways to make administrative costs look like charitable spending.

   Bona fide administrative costs are part of the money that goes to the charity's goals.

   > A typical -- typical -- case history is that of Greg Mortenson, of "Three Cups of Tea" fame, who made off with a million dollars of foundation money for his personal expenses, all justified of course as legitimate expenditures related to the foundation

   Repeating and italicizing the claim that the case is typical isn't actually justifying the claim; in any case, there's a pretty big difference between the allegations against Mortenson in Three Cups of Deceit (or the findings of the Montana investigation into Mortenson's use of CAI funds) and bona fide administrative expenses.

   Abuse of funds (whether administrative or not) is an issue orthogonal to the share of funds used for administrative purposes.

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4. lutuspSep 2013
   > Bona fide administrative costs are part of the money that goes to the charity's goals.

   Yes, but that requires a definition of "bona fide", something easier said than done. Yo can run a charity with 50 staff, or five staff and terrific computer software, as just one example where there's no wrongdoing, but a big difference in outcome. The problem is that many charities don't think of themselves as businesses with a bottom line.

   I speak as a philanthropist with many decades of experience.

   > ... there's a pretty big difference between the allegations against Mortenson in Three Cups of Deceit (or the findings of the Montana investigation into Mortenson's use of CAI funds) and bona fide administrative expenses.

   You clearly missed the point of the "Three Cups" story. It only came to light because some insiders weren't on board. That problem is easily solved -- feather each nest equally.

   > Abuse of funds (whether administrative or not) is an issue orthogonal to the share of funds used for administrative purposes.

   That's quite false. In many cases of charity abuse, administrative costs is the exploitable and exploited defect, as it certainly was in the "Three Cups" story. Another is the cost of fundraising, which in some cases undermines the entire charity by paying too much in fundraising costs for each donated dollar.

   Examples:

   http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampbarrett/2012/02/22/chari...

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5. BylinerMar 2012
   Here's a brief excerpt from the book:

   http://byliner.com/lawrence-lessig/stories/one-way-forward-e...

   If you're looking for a DRM-free version, we made that available via Apple's iBookstore and Google's eBookstore (now known as Google Play). A print-on-demand version is available via Blurb.com. All of these buying options are reachable from the book's page on Byliner:

   http://byliner.com/originals/one-way-forward

   One aspect of Byliner that's interesting (we hope) is the ability for authors to either update their stories, or provide detail behind their stories. A good example is Jon Krakauer's Three Cups of Deceit. In the months since its publication Jon has added 20,000 words of updates to his story:

   http://byliner.com/jon-krakauer/stories/excerpt-three-cups-o...

   Most of our authors continue to evolve their stories after publication, to the benefit of readers. We hope that Professor Lessig does the same with One Way Forward, which we were very proud to publish.

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