This essay is unnecessarily gloomy because it doesn't talk about success stories. For example, it's well-known that many vaccines work very well. It's not that hard to find interventions that work outside of psychology and education.

Without mentioning Effective Altruism, it explains why it's important. Yes, there are a lot of expensive, failed interventions out there.

If you want to fund something that works, the simplest way is to copy GiveWell's answers.