Lately, I've been interested in topics of learning, meaningful work, and impact. Quite often, we want to do meaningful work with notable results. People have good intentions, yet society does not recognize many of them; good things are difficult to notice.
One of the areas the society improved with time is risk management. I perceive risk management as an activity of resource redistribution to minimize unfortunate events' risk or maximize everyone's opportunities. For example, charitable organizations help those in need to have better odds to survive, get a better education, etc. Although, not every charity produces equally good results of value redistribution.
And here comes effective altruism, a philosophy and social movement that advocates determining the most effective ways to benefit others. Some widely considered actions to "do good" have dramatically more positive consequences than others.
For instance, many US government agencies are willing to spend over $30,000 to give someone an extra year of a healthy life. However, some of the most cost-effective global health charities, such as Against Malaria Foundation, provides an infant with a year of a healthy life per $100 donation. You can donate ~0.33% for almost the same effect.
There are surprising statistics on charities' performance and how people perceive their activities. Many social programs have a minimal impact. The difference between the best charities and the typical ones is tremendous. It's interesting that many people underestimate that difference. A survey showed that they think the best charities are only 66% more effective, whereas the difference may reach 10,000% in reality.
You can have hundreds of times more impact than what's typical by identifying the very best ways to help among the options open to you.