Which world problems are the most important to solve? – 80,000 Hours

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Top areas to work on

Preventing an AI-related catastrophe

Catastrophic pandemics

Nuclear war

Great power war

Climate change

Capacity building

Building effective altruism

Global priorities research

Improving decision making

Other promising areas

Civilisation resilience

Artificial sentience

Promoting positive values

Space governance

Risks of stable totalitarianism

Factory farming

Global health

Wild animal suffering

See all problem profiles →
See all →
Top skills to build early in your career

Policy and politics

Organisation-building

Research

Communicating ideas

Software and tech

Engineering

Experience with an emerging power

Expertise relevant to a top problem

See all our skills pages →
See all →
Our list of top high-impact career paths

AI safety technical research

AI governance and policy

Biorisk research, strategy, and policy

Information security in high-impact areas

Expert in AI hardware

Helping build the effective altruism community

China-related AI safety and governance

Grantmaker

Operations in high-impact organisations

Research into global priorities

More promising paths

Be a founder

Software engineering

Journalism

See more →

How to build great career capital

See our top recommendations →

See all career reviews →
Read the full series →
Introduction

Your most important decision

Foundations

A definition of impact

Longtermism

Harmful jobs

Global priorities

Problem selection

Existential risks

Top problems list

Contribution

How to think about your contribution

Effective solutions

List of high-impact careers

Personal fit

Gut instinct

Differences in productivity

Comparative advantage

Strategy

Ambition

Coordination

Exploration

Impact and satisfaction

Accidental harm

Read the full series →
Career planning and decision making

How to make your career plan

All our other planning resources

Selected topics

Moral philosophy

Career capital

Job satisfaction

Anonymous advice

Unconventional advice

Advocacy

Existential risk

Top-recommended careers

See all topics →

Top articles from outside our guides

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 →
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Home Career guide Part 5: The world’s biggest problems and why they’re not what first comes to mind

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Part 5: The world’s biggest problems and why they’re not what first comes to mind

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80,000 Hours is an Effective Ventures project. Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) (EV UK) is a charity in England and Wales (with registered charity number 1149828, registered company number 07962181, and is also a Netherlands registered tax-deductible entity ANBI 825776867). Effective Ventures Foundation USA Inc. (EV US) is a section 501(c)(3) organization in the USA (EIN 47-1988398). EV UK and EV US are separate charities that collaborate closely under the “Effective Ventures” name.

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