It has always appalled me that really bright scientists almost all work in the most competitive fields, the ones in which they are making the least difference. In other words, if they were hit by a truck, the same discovery would be made by somebody else about 10 minutes later.

—Aubrey de Grey

To make instrumentally rational choices involves choosing courses of action that best serve one’s ends. As a good example, one’s chances of having a positive impact on the world are significantly greater if one focuses one’s efforts on solving the world’s biggest, most urgent problems than if one focuses one’s efforts on solving comparatively small, non-urgent problems that will not ultimately matter in the long run if the biggest, most urgent problems are left unsolved. Therefore, if one’s goal is to make a difference in the world, then it is simply not rational to focus one’s efforts on solving comparatively small, non-urgent problems.

It is true that functioning societies do need people working on comparatively small day-to-day problems. But a shortage of people working on comparatively small day-to-day problems is itself a big urgent problem and so, something that one would need to factor into any rational decision about where to focus one’s efforts.

Moreover, it does not require an exceptionally intelligent person to survey the literature on the various problems that we may be facing and to arrive at a correct assessment of what problems are the biggest and most urgent and what problems are comparatively small and non-urgent. To adopt rational belief attitudes is to adopt belief attitudes (i.e., to believe, to disbelieve or to withhold belief) that best serve one’s epistemic ends, namely those of acquiring true beliefs and avoiding false beliefs. So, provided that one’s methodology for acquiring rational belief attitudes is robust, then there is surely a reasonably approachable threshold of analysis and synthesis beyond which more sophisticated analysis and synthesis will not likely yield a more correct assessment of what problems are the biggest and most urgent and what problems are comparatively small and non-urgent.

We face today an unprecedented number of big urgent problems. With those problems in mind, in this blog, I will supply readers with a robust methodology for acquiring rational belief attitudes and making rational decisions. Readers will then be better equipped to identify and solve the world’s biggest, most pressing problems.

 

Bibliography

 

Gates, B., & Gates, M. (n.d.). Annual Letters From Bill & Melinda Gates. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved April 8, 2021, from https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Ideas/Annual%20Letters

MacAskill, W. (2015). Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference. New York: Avery. http://www.effectivealtruism.org/doing-good-better

Singer, P. (2010). The Life You Can Save: How to Do Your Part to End World Poverty. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/the-book/

Singer, P.(2015). The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas about Living Ethically. Yale University Press. Todd, B. J.(2016). 80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good. CreateSpace. https://80000hours.org/book/