“Part 4: Want to do good? Here’s how to choose an area to focus on.” by Benjamin Todd

If you want to make a difference with your career, one place to start is to ask which global problems most need attention. Should you work on education, climate change, poverty, or something else?

The standard advice is to do whatever most interests you, and most people seem to end up working on whichever social problem first grabs their attention.

That’s exactly what our cofounder, Ben, did. At age 19, he was most interested in climate change. Here he is at a rally, in a suitably artistic shot:

However, his focus on climate change wasn’t the result of a careful comparison of the pros and cons of working on different problems. Rather, by his own admission, he’d happened to read about it, and found it engaging because it was sciency and he was geeky.

The problem with this approach is that you might happen to stumble across an area that’s just not that big, important, or easy to make progress on. You’re also much more likely to stumble across the problems that already receive the most attention, which makes them lower impact.

So how can you avoid these mistakes, and do more good?

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Outline:

(01:58) The bottom line

(03:13) Is this problem large in scale?

(05:56) Is this problem neglected?

(08:04) Is this problem solvable?

(11:01) Look for the best balance of the factors

(11:29) Your personal fit and expertise

(12:45) So what are the world’s most urgent problems?

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First published:
March 31st, 2016

Source:
https://80000hours.org/career-guide/most-pressing-problems