Humanity’s quest log.
optimism.fun is an open-source research and navigation project that ranks major unsolved problems, then connects each problem to evidence, organizations, founders, capital, and measurable progress. Its purpose is to help builders and allocators compare important work without pretending that one score replaces judgment.
Who is behind it
The site identifies Adam Pangelinan as its builder and includes Anchor Marianas LLC in its sitewide operator credits. The project’s source, issue history, and data files are publicly inspectable in the optimism.fun GitHub repository, so factual corrections can be proposed against the same material that produces the site.
How the ranking works
The ranking combines several explicit lenses, including people affected, welfare benefit-cost evidence, existential-risk importance, utility gains, urgency, and observed supply. Every number is intended to remain traceable to a source or marked estimate; the methodology page explains normalization, confidence, and known gaps.
Read the methodology →Evidence and limits
The repository draws on public and cited material from organizations such as the World Bank, WHO, Our World in Data, SEC EDGAR, OpenAlex, USAspending, and the Federal Register, alongside project-maintained research files. Coverage and freshness vary, and a ranking is a decision aid rather than investment, legal, or medical advice.
What the site offers
Visitors can browse the published research, filter interactive rankings, subscribe for project updates, send feedback, and use an optional founder-fit interview. The site does not advertise a supported public API or MCP contract; automated readers should use the substantive pages and the project’s llms.txt guidance instead.