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    Introduction
    • Your most important decision
    • Summary
    Foundations
    • A definition of impact
    • Future generations & their moral significance
    • Effective altruism
    Global priorities
    • Why problem selection is crucial
    • The case for reducing existential risks
    • This could be the most important century
    • Our current list of pressing problems
    Solutions
    • The best solutions are far more effective
    Leverage
    • What is leverage, and how to get it?
    • Our list of high-impact careers
    Personal fit
    • Fit is more important than you think
    Strategy
    • What is career capital?
    • How much to explore?
    • Coordination and impact
    • Balancing impact and doing what you love
    • Aim higher: a rational case for dreaming big
    • Three career stages
    Conclusion
    • How much do careers differ in impact?
    Read the full guide →
    Go to problems hub →
    Top areas to work on
    • Positively shaping the development of AI
    • Global priorities research
    • Building effective altruism
    • Reducing the risk of catastrophic pandemics
    • Nuclear security
    • Improving institutional decision making
    • Extreme climate change
    Other promising areas
    • Mitigating great power conflict
    • Global governance
    • Space governance
    • See all →
    Go to problems hub →
    See all our career reviews →
    Key categories of impactful careers
    • Government and policy
    • Organisation-building at effective nonprofits
    • Research
    • Applying an unusual strength to a needed niche
    • Communication
    • Earning to give
    List of top-recommended career paths
    • AI safety technical research
    • Long-term AI policy
    • Founder of new projects
    • Helping build the effective altruism community
    • Grantmaker
    • Operations management in high-impact organisations
    • Research into global priorities
    • Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
    • China-related AI safety and governance
    • Forecasting research and implementation
    Sometimes-recommended paths
    • High-impact but especially competitive
    • Promising but under-researched
    • Impactful if you’re an especially good fit
    Recommended career capital
    • Steps to build your skills and network
    Making the most of your current job
    • Doing good in any career
    • How to invest in yourself
    See all our career reviews →
    See all planning resources →
    Create a high-impact career plan
    • 8-week career planning course
    • Summary
    • Career plan template
    • Annual career check-up
    Make good career decisions
    • Make an immediate decision
    • Improve your decision-making skills
    See all planning resources →
    Selected topics
    • Moral philosophy
    • Skills
    • Job satisfaction
    • Anonymous advice
    • Unconventional advice
    • What to study
    • Advocacy
    • Catastrophic risks
    • Meta-causes
    • Priority paths
    See all topics →
    Top articles from outside our guides
    • What makes for a dream job?
    • Best charities to donate to
    • Misconceptions about effective altruism
    • High-impact research questions
    • What are your chances of getting elected to Congress, if you try?
    • How many lives does a doctor save?
    • What's the impact of voting?
    • Advice for undergraduates
    All articles →

    2017 career guide
    • All career guide pages →
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Home Key articles Video: The world’s biggest problems and why they’re not what first comes to mind
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Video: The world’s biggest problems and why they’re not what first comes to mind

By The 80,000 Hours team · Published March 2018

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READ NEXT: What are the world’s most urgent problems?

The full article this video came from: Want to do good? Here’s how to choose an area to focus on

Check out the details of how we compare problems.

Other copies of the video: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.

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© 2021 – all rights reserved. Please contact us if you wish to redistribute, translate, or adapt this work.

80,000 Hours is part of the Centre for Effective Altruism, a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity Number 1149828) and a registered 501(c)(3) Exempt Organization in the USA (EIN 47-1988398).

Please contact us to suggest ideas, improvements, or corrections.

We do our best to provide useful information, but how you use the information is up to you. We don’t take responsibility for any loss that results from the use of information on the site. Please consult our full legal disclaimer and privacy policy.

© 2021 – all rights reserved. Please contact us if you wish to redistribute, translate, or adapt this work.

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