Cause Area: Cause areas are relatively informal and wide classifications of causes. It can be useful to talk about cause areas because the large amount of specific causes within a cause area can have some similarities. Common examples of cause areas are: Climate change, global health and development, animal suffering, prevention of catastrophic risk, etc.
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(highlight:: when thinking about cause areas the question is whether or not this cause area is:

1. Incredibly promising! I should look thoroughly into opportunities here.
2. Potentially promising: Other cause areas might be more impactful, but it’s definitely possible that the best overall opportunity will be here.
3. Unlikely to be relevant: I don’t think there’s a realistic chance I’ll find something here that I believe to be as impactful as in other cause areas. I can stop looking into this cause area.)
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We’ll go over the three factors it considers (importance, tractability, and neglectedness, but we need to remember a few things as we do:
• This is a general framework for making imprecise observations. This isn’t a fully quantitative method and isn’t a formula that will spit out a specific and an infallible answer.
• We are currently comparing cause areas to determine their impact. Don’t forget that your own personal fit is also incredibly important! We’ll talk about it later, but it’s important to mention that your skills, experience and even your excitement about specific causes can be a deciding factor for you in the cause area you’ll eventually choose.
• There are other methodologies out there and many can be incredibly useful in some circumstances. Another useful concept to know in this context is limiting factors.)
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Cause areas that are important tend to have more opportunities for doing important work within them. But that doesn’t mean every opportunity within an important cause area is equally important. Most organizations and roles only address specific parts of their chosen cause area (which is a good thing!). You should also consider whether the importance of that sub-area is also comparatively high.
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Decision-making is all about making trade-offs. We can also (though not always) find specifically interesting opportunities by looking at options that buck the trend of the greater cause area. For example, a neglected issue within an important and tractable but crowded cause area.
- View Highlight
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Cause Area: Cause areas are relatively informal and wide classifications of causes. It can be useful to talk about cause areas because the large amount of specific causes within a cause area can have some similarities. Common examples of cause areas are: Climate change, global health and development, animal suffering, prevention of catastrophic risk, etc.
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: when thinking about cause areas the question is whether or not this cause area is:

1. Incredibly promising! I should look thoroughly into opportunities here.
2. Potentially promising: Other cause areas might be more impactful, but it’s definitely possible that the best overall opportunity will be here.
3. Unlikely to be relevant: I don’t think there’s a realistic chance I’ll find something here that I believe to be as impactful as in other cause areas. I can stop looking into this cause area.)
   - View Highlight
   -

We’ll go over the three factors it considers (importance, tractability, and neglectedness, but we need to remember a few things as we do:
• This is a general framework for making imprecise observations. This isn’t a fully quantitative method and isn’t a formula that will spit out a specific and an infallible answer.
• We are currently comparing cause areas to determine their impact. Don’t forget that your own personal fit is also incredibly important! We’ll talk about it later, but it’s important to mention that your skills, experience and even your excitement about specific causes can be a deciding factor for you in the cause area you’ll eventually choose.
• There are other methodologies out there and many can be incredibly useful in some circumstances. Another useful concept to know in this context is limiting factors.)
- View Highlight
-

Cause areas that are important tend to have more opportunities for doing important work within them. But that doesn’t mean every opportunity within an important cause area is equally important. Most organizations and roles only address specific parts of their chosen cause area (which is a good thing!). You should also consider whether the importance of that sub-area is also comparatively high.
- View Highlight
-

Decision-making is all about making trade-offs. We can also (though not always) find specifically interesting opportunities by looking at options that buck the trend of the greater cause area. For example, a neglected issue within an important and tractable but crowded cause area.
- View Highlight
-