The Importance of Pairing Up PhD Students

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It does seem like a lot of PhD students are really unhappy. It's much harder to motivate yourself to do something that is just to like signal that you're good enough to get a PhD than to do what you intrinsically care about. I think the if I could change one thing about these programs, it would be pairing up PhD students or hiring more people to be actors line managers to these students because academics just don't have time to do it.

What are the best strategies for improving ourselves? How are line managers useful? Why does Rob prefer long-form content for the 80,000 Hours podcast? What are the sorts of things humans value and why? In what ways do research ethics considerations fail to achieve their stated objectives? Why are prediction markets useful?

Rob Wiblin is the Head of Research at 80,000 Hours where he investigates how people can do more good in the course of their career and produces a long-form interview show called the 80,000 Hours Podcast. He studied genetics and economics in Australia before moving to the UK to help develop the emerging field of effective altruism. You can learn more about Rob at robwiblin.com, learn more about his research work at 80000hours.org, and follow him on social media at @robertwiblin.

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