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Given the knowledge we have at the moment, we believe that the main opportunities to make the biggest difference are by working on the problems we have now gone through. Advances in them would positively affect both us and many future generations, meaning they are very large in scale. In addition, many of them are overlooked and there are therefore good opportunities to contribute greatly with further work.
On the 80,000 Hours website you can see a list of additional promising problem areas . It is, among other things, about investing for the future, reforming voting systems, improving individuals’ cognitive abilities and reducing the risk of conflicts between major powers. These have not been evaluated as carefully and there is therefore greater uncertainty around them. They may be particularly appropriate to focus on if you already have relevant skills or feel strongly motivated.
If you want to focus on more concrete, and in the short term more measurable, problems, we believe that some of the best opportunities are to improve human health in low-income countries and reduce animal suffering in industrial food production. These problems affect an incredible number of lives, but receive very little attention in relation to how many are affected.