World pressing problems
80,000 hours describes world-pressing problems as positive impact as promoting welfare over the long term on a large scale'.
The following are problems that an individual can have the greatest impact on the margin.
Working on emerging technologies
Reduce the risk of global catastrophes i.e. pandemic, nuclear war, global warming
Research and capacity-building for future work
How to find a problem to work on:
Neglected - problems that aren’t being worked on may just be neglected and if more resources were applied then progress would be made.
Important - is it a pressing problem
Tractable - there are foreseeable ways at solving a problem like double-blind studies.
Here is a list of potential problems to work on.
Broad directions to work on these
Research
Government and Policy in an area relevant to a top issue
Work at effective non-profits
Apply an unusual strength to a needed niche
Sources
https://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/
https://www.un.org/en/global-issues