One idea you often hear is that we should put our efforts into what are the 'most important' things. What is considered important varies, for instance, finding a cure to a terrible disease is important because many people die from this disease. Fixing some societal problem is important because the problem causes much inequality among people. Developing friendly A.I. is important because evil A.I. could take over the world. Improving our educational system is important because it could have a huge impact on the productiveness of our society.
What is common for all of these, is that the possible benefits from solving the problem are very large. Although prioritization based on possible benefits can sometimes work as the rule of thumb it includes a pitfall: Even if we put a lot of effort into solving the very important problem, it might be that the problem won't be solved or the state of the world improves only very little.
Taking importance into account is a good start but including a second factor will greatly improve our prioritization ability.
What is common for all of these, is that the possible benefits from solving the problem are very large. Although prioritization based on possible benefits can sometimes work as the rule of thumb it includes a pitfall: Even if we put a lot of effort into solving the very important problem, it might be that the problem won't be solved or the state of the world improves only very little.
Taking importance into account is a good start but including a second factor will greatly improve our prioritization ability.
