What's the effect of installing PlayPumps compared to funding hand pumps?

PlayPumps International

Good intentions aren’t enough

Imagine you’re in charge of a hospital…

Causes don't deserve support. People do.

How much should the government pay to save 200,000 birds?

How to avoid scope neglect

Which strategy do you think brings the greatest reduction in CO2e emissions per $100 of US government spending?

How many more lives does the most effective global health charity save per $100 spent than additional UK public health spending?

How much more can be accomplished per $100 implementing the most effective solution for Problem B than Problem A?

What is the best way for you to help?

We are in triage every second of every day

Why the problem you work on is the biggest driver of your impact

How to achieve hundreds of times more

Have more people died from causes directly related to terrorism or COVID-19 over the last 50 years globally? How much more?

Factor 1: Importance

How much does the US government spend on terrorism vs. pandemics?

Factor 2: Neglectedness

Do preventative-care home visits to elderly patients by healthcare professionals improve life expectancy?

Do drug substitution programs reduce criminal offending among drug addicts?

Does formally processing crimes committed by juveniles reduce criminal re-offending?

Factor 3: Tractability

The ITN framework

Which of the following problems is higher impact to work on according to the ITN framework?

The ITN framework, cost-effectiveness, and cause prioritisation

Introduction to EA – Why & How to Prioritize Problems to Work On

Global priorities research & shaping the ideas of intellectuals

We can use science to end poverty faster. But how much do governments listen to it?

Choosing the most critical problem

What happened to GDP per capita in England after 1825?

Our wealth across the ages

The industrial revolution changed everything

Comparing wealth across countries and time

We’ve seen progress across most areas of our lives

Billions now live free from extreme poverty

We’ve become vastly better educated

In what period did global life expectancy grow the most?

Our growing life expectancy

We could make the future radically better

Takeaways

The world is much better; The world is awful; The world can be much better

We radically improved the world, and could again

Know whether you’re actually helping

What impact did your colleague have from pushing the doctor out of the way to do CPR?

The real impact of saving a life

What was your true counterfactual impact?

Real positive change wouldn't have happened without you

Does Scared Straight help difficult kids commit less crime?

Scared straight?

You can accomplish more in hard-to-replace jobs

'Replaceability' isn't as important as you might think (or we've suggested)

Shapley values: Better than counterfactuals

How to be irreplaceable

Who deserves our concern?

Should you report the kidnapping to the police?

Kidnapper conundrum

We should care for moral patients

A golden rule

The all-knowing dictator

The blind dictator

We’re making moral progress

Same-sex relationships are now legal in the majority of countries

Approval of marriage between Black people and White people flipped from 4% to 94%

Many more women now enter the workforce than a century ago

We’re not done yet

Being a moral entrepreneur

Our descendants will probably see us as moral monsters

Identifying and tackling prejudice

Every answer has an element of uncertainty

Expected value is a tool for handling uncertainty

Assuming you could afford to lose, should you take this bet?

Let’s make a bet

Averting a nuclear disaster

What is the expected value, in additional years of healthy life, of a dose of Paxlovid?

Paxlovid

Expected value is used by leaders across industries

Which of your options has the highest expected value?

Sink or swim

Probabilities can be subjective and made up

If we accept GiveWell’s analysis, what increase should we expect for receiving deworming treatment?

Deworm The World

Expected value doesn’t handle extremes gracefully

The Fox And The Hedgehog: A Story of Triumphs and Tragedy

Moral cluelessness, population ethics, and probability within a multiverse

How to manage uncertainty in impact

Which problem should you work on?

Your career is loooooong…

You could change the course of history

There’s never been a better time to change the world

Which option would have a bigger direct impact on CO2 emissions?

Which of these factors has the strongest relationship with happiness on average?

Which graph best describes the relationship between income and happiness?

You can be financially secure and impactful

Take action

How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You)

80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good

Making the most of your career

At what age is the average American’s salary the highest?

Build career capital to set yourself up for success

How often do we change our minds about our values, relative to what we expect?

Conduct quick tests to find your best long-term option

To get the best score you can, how many hours should you research before you start writing?

How much should you research?

What percent of technology startups fail to return a positive investment?

Reach high, with a backup

Score your options

Career exploration: when should you settle?

What to do when you’re uncertain

How many citations do the top 20% of scientists account for?

1_How many citations do the top 20% of scientists account for

You won’t know if something’s a good fit for you until you’ve tried it

What percent of American undergraduate students change degrees?

Take small steps to become more confident in a degree

How many passionate students are there in sports, music, or art for every job?

Don't blindly follow your passion

How often, on average, does a member of Gen Z change jobs?

Try out more options than you think you need to

Which undergraduate degree has the highest median salary?

Choose a flexible degree to not lock yourself in

High school is 12 years long. What is the value, in increased earnings, of finishing that last year of high school compared to finishing only 11 years?

Prestigious degrees open doors

Infrequently asked questions

Many Undergrads Should Take Light Courseloads

Half-assing it with everything you've got

What to study at university

Compare your long-term paths

Create a plan that makes sense for you

Your most impactful, fulfilling career

Common misconceptions

How many lives a doctor saves

What's more important to check to find out if this charity would actually help people?

Save The World By Helping Things™

The overhead myth

Compared to a doctor, how many more lives per year does Elijah, the engineer, save?

What does it cost in the field of global health to save a life, to the nearest order of magnitude?

How does the median American income compare to the rest of the world?

How rich will you be?

You can save lives without a medical degree

Join or build a community changing the world

Confidently taking your next steps

How you can help now

How to actually change the world

 in any field account for a large fraction of the impact.

For example, the top 20% of musical artists accounted for 70% of the spots in Billboard Hot-100.

So if you could find a field where you’re more likely to be 

, it can substantially increase your impact.

The top 20% of scientists account for 50% of all citations.

So your personal fit with a career is really important. How can you concretely find 

Reading about your options online and speaking to people is a 

It’s hard to predict all the parts of a job or degree you’ll like and not like until you’ve actually 

. (We have more ideas for trying something out in the previous lesson

Nearly one in three students switches their degree partway. The number of 

 may be even larger, though the exact figure is unknown.

And while switching majors can allow for useful exploration, it can 

So if you try out a potential degree before you apply, you can save yourself a lot of time.

, testing out your options is even more important because you need to decide your degree when you apply.

30% of American undergraduate students change degrees.

The closer a test gets to what you’ll be doing for your career, the more 

However, you usually can’t land a job without experience, so you’ll need to take 

These steps help you figure out if an option is the right 

 about what helps someone excel in a degree and what people don’t like.

 who’ve done those degrees / are doing similar things to what you want to do (e.g. ask your parents/ family friends/ teachers/ the internet).

 using a platform such as Coursera, EdX, or Udemy.

 for each person trying, this ratio is even more extreme.

Given this imbalance, jobs in these areas tend to be 

, with people under terrible working conditions trying for decades to get a break — and rarely succeeding.

 to keep in mind, and following it may not make you fulfilled or help you change the world.

Passion is certainly an important factor in 

, but many assume it’s the only consideration, or that they must chase their passion at the 

Average job satisfaction

Job performance

Sustained motivation

Unsatisfying careers

Prone to bias

Excessive switching

Average length per role by gen

This job hopping is because Gen Z are looking for the 

 right after graduation, similar to previous generations.

In the past, changing jobs was seen as a red flag for recruiters, but now it is more 

This high rate of turnover also underscores the importance of setting yourself up to 

The average member of Gen Z changes jobs every 

 is narrowing in on an option too soon, only to realize later it’s not right for you.

 of >10 options, making sure to have both ambitious and fallback options

Assume the data is based on the median salary for American graduates aged 35 to 45.

Applied degrees, like chemical engineering, can result in high salaries, but can also 

 to a single industry because your skills are highly specialized.

Other degrees, like computer science, may result in slightly lower salaries, but provide skills that are more transferable to different industries. This gives you more career options even if you are 

And averages can only tell you so much, since the tops of various industries may look very 

. Top lawyers, for example, make dramatically more than the average for their field.

Chemical engineering is the highest paid undergraduate degree for mid-career professionals (aged 35–45).

If you’re not sure about what you want to do, choosing a degree with more flexibility is particularly important.

quantitative degrees keep your options open better

Subjective ranking of degree flexibility

If you want to keep your options open, choose the most challenging, quantitative subject you think you can succeed in.

, such as how to administer an IV catheter, isn’t useful outside of medicine. Whereas critical thinking, planning, and communication, writing, interpersonal, and quantitative skills are useful no matter what you’re applying them to.

If the only factor being used by employers was how many 

 a graduate has, then you’d expect it to increase linearly each year - you’d get about ¾ of high school skills in ¾ the time.

 to explain why employers value a completed education so much more than a partial one.

In work that won Michael Spence a Nobel Prize, he made the case that potential employees 

–rather than gaining new ones–by completing degrees.

, so completing one demonstrates a commitment to working hard, intelligence, and other virtues.

What to study at university

What you'll be able to do