The 80 Thousand Hours Argument

This is a cross-post of an interview Rob did with Julia Galef on her podcast Rationally Speaking. Rob and Julia discuss how the career advice 80,000 Hours gives has changed over the years, and the biggest misconceptions about our views.

The topics will be familiar to the most fervent fans of this show — but we think that if you’ve listened to less than about half of the episodes we've released so far, you’ll find something new to enjoy here. Julia may be familiar to you as the guest on episode 7 of the show, way back in September 2017.

The conversation also covers topics like:

• How many people should try to get a job in finance and donate their income?
• The case for working to reduce global catastrophic risks in targeted ways, and historical precedents for this kind of work
• Why reducing risk is a better way to help the future than increasing economic growth
• What percentage of the world should ideally follow 80,000 Hours advice?

Links to learn more, summary and full transcript.

If you’re interested in the cooling and expansion of the universe, which comes up on the show, you should definitely check out our 29th episode with Dr Anders Sandberg.

Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type '80,000 Hours' into any podcasting app.

The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.