 Shortly after the release of the book, Easterly wrote an article for "Foreign Policy" summarizing the key arguments of the book.Easterly also wrote an op-ed for "Seattle Times" describing the themes of his book, and taking issue with the approach used by Bill Gates to fight poverty.Dalibor Rohac reviewed the book favorably for "The Umlaut", writing, "There are no silver-bullet solutions to poverty and underdevelopment.