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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
Contribution
Which careers let you contribute most?
Some solutions are far more effective than others
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
Preventing an AI-related catastrophe
Catastrophic pandemics
Building effective altruism
Global priorities research
Nuclear war
Epistemics and institutional decision making
Climate change
Great power conflict
Other promising areas
Promoting positive values
Space governance
See more →
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
Career capital
Job satisfaction
Anonymous advice
Unconventional advice
Advice for undergraduates
Advocacy
Existential risk
Top-recommended careers
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
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2017 career guide
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Foundations (290)
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Topic archive: Research in relevant areas

Subtopics in "Research in relevant areas":

Biomedical Research (14)
Scientific research (12)

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All73
Podcasts27
Blog posts18
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All content tagged "Research in relevant areas"

2022

December

Marcus Davis on founding and leading Rethink Priorities
Podcast (80k After Hours)

November

#140 – Bear Braumoeller on the case that war isn’t in decline
Podcast
Global priorities research (Updated)
Problem profile

October

#139 – Alan Hájek on puzzles and paradoxes in probability and expected value
Podcast

June

#132 – Nova DasSarma on why information security may be critical to the safe development of AI systems
Podcast

May

Climate change
Problem profile

March

Engineering
Career review

February

Software engineering
Career review

2021

December

#118 – Jaime Yassif on safeguarding bioscience to prevent catastrophic lab accidents and bioweapons development
Podcast

November

Research in relevant areas
Article
#115 – David Wallace on the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics and its implications
Podcast

October

#114 – Maha Rehman on working with governments to rapidly deliver masks to millions of people
Podcast
Investigate a potentially pressing but unexplored global issue
Career review
Research & advocacy promoting impactful climate solutions
Career review
Specialist in emerging global powers
Career review
Research management
Career review
Forecasting and related research and implementation
Career review
Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
Career review
Research into global priorities
Career review
AI safety technical research
Career review
Long-term AI policy strategy research and implementation
Career review
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India
Podcast
#112 – Carl Shulman on the common-sense case for existential risk work and its practical implications
Podcast

September

#111 – Mushtaq Khan on using institutional economics to predict effective government reforms
Podcast

August

#109 – Holden Karnofsky on the most important century
Podcast
#108 – Chris Olah on working at top AI labs without an undergrad degree
Podcast
#107 – Chris Olah on what the hell is going on inside neural networks
Podcast

June

#103 – Max Roser on building the world’s first great source of COVID-19 data at Our World in Data
Podcast

March

#95 – Kelly Wanser on whether to deliberately intervene in the climate
Podcast

January

#90 – Ajeya Cotra on worldview diversification and how big the future could be
Podcast
Rob Wiblin on self-improvement and research ethics
Blog post

2020

December

#89 – Owen Cotton-Barratt on epistemic systems & layers of defence against potential global catastrophes
Podcast

November

#87 – Russ Roberts on whether it’s more effective to help strangers, or people you know
Podcast

August

Research questions that could have a big social impact, organised by discipline
Article
How to use your career to help reduce existential risk
Article

May

#76 – Tara Kirk Sell on COVID-19 misinformation, who’s done well and badly, and what we should reopen first
Podcast

April

Policy and research ideas to reduce existential risk
Blog post

March

If you want to help the world tackle COVID-19, what should you do?
Article
Reducing global catastrophic biological risks
Problem profile
#72 – Toby Ord on the precipice and humanity’s potential futures
Podcast

2019

August

Philosophy academia
Career review

2018

November

#47 – PhD or programming? Fast paths into aligning AI as a machine learning engineer, according to ML engineers Catherine Olsson & Daniel Ziegler
Podcast

October

#46 – Philosopher Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness, population ethics, probability within a multiverse, & harnessing the brainpower of academia to tackle the most important research questions
Podcast
#45 – Economics Prof Tyler Cowen says our overwhelming priorities should be maximising economic growth and making civilisation more stable. Is he right?
Podcast

September

American with a science PhD? Get a fast-track into AI and STEM policy by applying for the acclaimed AAAS Science & Technology Fellowship by Nov 1.
Blog post

August

#41 – If the US put fewer people in prison, would crime go up? Not at all, according to Open Philanthropy’s renowned researcher David Roodman.
Podcast
#39 – How much should you change your beliefs based on new evidence? Dr Spencer Greenberg on the scientific approach to solving difficult everyday questions
Podcast

April

#28 – Dr Owen Cotton-Barratt on why daring scientists should have to get liability insurance
Podcast
#26 – How exactly clean meat is created & the advances needed to get it into every supermarket, according to food scientist Marie Gibbons
Podcast

2017

October

#11 – Speeding up social science 10-fold, how to do research that’s actually useful, & why plenty of startups cause harm
Podcast

April

Should you wait to make a difference? (Updated)
Article
Why and how to earn to give (Updated)
Article

2016

June

How to do high impact research (Updated)
Article

May

To find work you love, don’t (always) follow your passion (Updated)
Article

April

Global priorities research (First published)
Problem profile

2015

August

Biomedical research
Career review

June

Economics PhDs
Career review
Check with your gut, but don’t go with it (Updated)
Article

2014

October

Should you wait to make a difference? (First published)
Article
Check with your gut, but don’t go with it (First published)
Article

September

Why and how to earn to give (First published)
Article
How to do high impact research (First published)
Article
To find work you love, don’t (always) follow your passion (First published)
Article

August

Job satisfaction research
Article

April

The Undercover Economist speaks to 80,000 Hours
Blog post

February

Case study: earning to give compared to medical research
Blog post

January

Interview with leading HIV vaccine researcher – Prof. Sir Andrew McMichael
Blog post
Which cause is most effective?
Blog post

2013

December

A comparison of medical research and earning to give
Blog post

November

Interview with malaria vaccine researcher Katie Ewer
Blog post
Interview with a Cambridge Professor of Medical Genetics on research careers
Blog post
What should you do with a very large amount of money?
Blog post
Thoughts on my experience working at GiveWell
Blog post

April

Is most research a waste?
Blog post

February

Vegetarian Research
Blog post

January

How to choose a degree for Earning to Give and Research
Blog post
How to make a difference in research: An interview with Nick Bostrom
Blog post

2012

October

How to do important research
Blog post

2011

November

High Impact Science
Blog post

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All73
Podcasts27
Blog posts18
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Key articles10
Problem profiles3
Podcasts (80k After Hours)1

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80,000 Hours is a project of the Effective Ventures Foundation (England and Wales registered charity number 1149828 and registered company number 07962181) with a registered 501(c)(3) Exempt Organization in the USA (Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc., 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.