Table of Contents
Throughout history there are people who have probably saved millions of lives in their professions. Stanislav Petrov is believed to have averted a possible nuclear war, Norman Borlaug’s research contributed to the “Green Revolution” that reduced starvation, and Viktor Zhdanov convinced the WHO to launch a campaign against smallpox, leading to the complete eradication of the dreaded disease. The goal of this guide is to help you create a meaningful career that you enjoy and that makes a big positive difference. If you think strategically about which problem to focus on, which role to choose and where your particular strengths fit, you can make a significant contribution to the world.
Some career paths are expected to have over a hundred times greater positive impact than others. So if you want to do a lot of good, it might be a good idea to spend some of your career’s 80,000 hours thinking about what to do with the rest of the time. Increasing your impact by one percent corresponds to a time investment of around 800 hours. This guide takes 1-2 hours to go through and can be a good first step.
The guide is aimed primarily at people who are at the beginning of their careers, but we believe that world-improvers of all ages and life stages can find value in the content.