“There are many ways to get involved in the task of reducing suffering. It’s helpful to focus more on those that appeal to your interests and skills. Following are some broad categories:

• Earning to give: Rather than working at an altruistic charity yourself, it can be more effective to make money elsewhere and donate large portions of it to charity. This approach works well if you especially enjoy technology, finance, or other high-earning fields and if you think there’s a low risk that peer pressure in such industries would reduce your altruistic ambitions.

• Research: There remain many crucial questions whose answers will influence where altruists focused on reducing suffering donate their money and time. Progress on these topics not only improves your own wisdom about where to focus but can also improve the priorities of many others.

• Movement building: Generating interest in reducing suffering effectively can multiply your impact by bringing in more minds who can contribute.

One of the most important questions to consider is what career you should pursue, since you’ll spend a lot of your waking life at work.”

— Brian Tomasik, A Short Introduction to Reducing Suffering (Essays on Reducing Suffering)