Re #4 "People can donate the largest amount through a traditional "high-earning career", like investment banking."

This one involves, to some extent, the classic American confusion between social class and income. ...

This isn't what 80,000 hours or anyone else is arguing. It's explicitly "choose high earning careers" not "choose prestigious careers". Investment banking is often brought up because it really is a way to make a lot of money.

standard "career tracks" have serious disadvantages, like working insane hours doing unpleasant stuff. They sap what I call human capital and social capital - human capital is your skills, capabilities, and the value you can provide to an organization, while social capital is your network of friends and people who want to work with you. Human capital and social capital are the two critical things one needs to do anything, including world saving; they shouldn't be spent lightly.

Totally agree. It shouldn't be spent lightly. If you're trying to maximize the good you do over your life, choosing a soul-sucking career that will burn you out in only a few years is probably not a good idea. But there are some financial companies where people work more reasonable hours, and there are other careers that provide better work-life balance.

A job that is unpleasant but lets you donate ten times as much is letting you do approximately ten times as much good as a job you enjoy more. If you work only five years at the unpleasant job, you may be doing more than you could in a whole career at the more pleasant one.