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80,000 Hours Podcast
The 80,000 Hours Career Guide (2023)
Sep 4, 2023
Benjamin Todd, the founder of 80,000 Hours and author of the 80,000 Hours Career Guide, dives into finding meaningful work. He discusses how unconventional career choices can drive personal fulfillment and societal impact. Todd emphasizes that passion doesn’t always equate to happiness and outlines six key ingredients for job satisfaction. He also explores the importance of strategic giving and how individuals can align their careers with global challenges, including the pressing threats posed by AI and climate change.
04:41:13
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Quick takeaways
- Donating to effective charities can save lives and have a tremendous impact on improving the world.
- Advocating for important causes can create positive change on a larger scale.
- Helping others be more effective in their efforts contributes to making the world a better place.
- Earning to give by donating a significant portion of income can have a substantial impact on saving lives and funding important causes.
- Effective communication and advocacy play a vital role in creating social change.
- Research is a powerful avenue for making a significant impact and solving pressing problems.
Deep dives
Donating effectively
Donating 10% of your income to effective charities can have a significant positive impact on improving the lives of others. By giving to organizations that work on the biggest and most neglected issues, each dollar donated can do a tremendous amount of good. For example, by donating to charities like the Against Malaria Foundation, it's estimated that you could save more than one life every year. Over a 40-year career, this could lead to saving around 40 lives, which is significantly more than the impact of a typical doctor. By donating just a small percentage of your income, you have the potential to achieve a high level of social impact and make a significant difference.
Advocating for important causes
Another way to make a difference is by advocating for important causes. This involves using your voice and influence to raise awareness, promote change, and support policies or actions that have a positive impact. Advocacy can be done through various means such as writing, speaking, organizing events, and supporting campaigns. By advocating for causes that align with your values and have the potential for substantial social impact, you can contribute to creating positive change on a larger scale.
Helping others be more effective
In addition to donating and advocating, you can also make a difference by helping others be more effective in their efforts to create positive change. This can include supporting and guiding individuals, organizations, or communities in finding the most impactful ways to achieve their goals. By providing mentorship, sharing knowledge, and facilitating connections, you can amplify the impact of those working towards meaningful causes. Even if your career may not directly address a specific issue, you can still contribute to the collective effort of making the world a better place by helping others be more effective.
Earning to give: Maximizing impact through higher income and donations
One effective way to make a difference is by earning a higher income and donating a large portion of it to highly effective organizations. This approach, known as earning to give, allows individuals to have a significant indirect contribution by supporting non-profit organizations that lack funding. By working in higher-paying jobs, individuals can donate a substantial portion of their extra earnings, usually around 20 to 50% of their total salary. Earning to give is not limited to specific industries, but rather involves anyone who aims to earn more in order to give more. This approach can have a higher impact than working directly in a non-profit, as individuals can donate larger sums and have the flexibility to support different organizations based on their research and evolving needs.
Communication: Spreading awareness and advocating for important issues
Another way to make a difference is through effective communication and advocacy. By spreading awareness and advocating for important issues, individuals can have a significant impact on public opinion and policy decisions. This can include activities such as writing articles, giving public talks, organizing events, or using social media platforms to reach a larger audience. Effective communication can help change public perceptions, mobilize support, and influence decision-makers. By effectively conveying the importance of pressing problems and potential solutions, individuals can contribute to creating meaningful change on a larger scale.
Research: Contributing to knowledge and evidence-based solutions
Research plays a crucial role in addressing pressing global problems. By working as researchers, individuals can contribute to knowledge and evidence-based solutions. This includes conducting studies, analyzing data, and developing innovative approaches within specific problem areas. Research can help identify effective interventions, evaluate program outcomes, and provide insights for decision-making. By pushing the boundaries of understanding and generating valuable insights, researchers can contribute to developing more effective strategies and interventions to tackle global challenges.
Government and Policy: Influencing decision-making and shaping effective policies
Working in government and policy positions provides an opportunity to have a direct impact on shaping effective policies and influencing decision-making. By engaging in policy analysis, advising policymakers, or working within government agencies, individuals can contribute to designing and implementing solutions to address pressing issues. This can involve advocating for evidence-based policies, crafting legislation, and collaborating with stakeholders to drive positive change. Government and policy positions provide a platform to have an impact on a systemic level and drive meaningful progress in addressing social challenges.
Organization Building: Creating and leading effective initiatives and charities
Building and leading effective organizations and initiatives is another powerful way to make a difference. By creating and managing initiatives or charities focused on specific problems, individuals can drive impactful change from the ground up. This involves bringing together resources, talent, and expertise to develop and implement innovative solutions. Effective leadership and organizational management can ensure that efforts are well-coordinated, resources are maximized, and the impact is sustained over the long term. By building organizations and initiatives, individuals can create lasting legacies of positive change and have a lasting impact on the issues they care about.
Earning to Give: A Baseline for Doing Good
Earning to give is a strategy where individuals donate a significant portion of their income to high-impact charities. By earning more money and donating a percentage of it, individuals can have a substantial impact on saving lives and funding important causes. This approach has attracted attention and media coverage. However, it is important to note that earning to give should not be the only recommended approach, as there are other avenues that can have even greater impact.
Communication: Spreading Ideas for Social Change
Communication and advocacy play a vital role in creating social change. The power of spreading important ideas and solutions to pressing problems should not be underestimated. Effective communication can lead to launching social movements, changing public opinion, and influencing policymakers. Whether through media, advocacy, or community building, communication careers offer a way to have a lasting impact on a problem by reaching vast audiences. By becoming skilled communicators, individuals can make a substantial difference in areas they care about.
Research: Advancing Knowledge and Making Breakthroughs
Research is a powerful avenue for making a significant impact. By pushing the boundaries of knowledge, researchers can contribute to solving pressing problems. Through breakthrough discoveries and developing new ideas, researchers can change their fields and potentially shape the course of history. Pursuing a career in research requires a focus on gaining expertise in a particular area and dedicating years of focused practice. While it is important to acknowledge the challenges and potential roadblocks in research, the potential for high impact and long-term progress makes it a compelling option for those interested in making a difference.
Importance of Career Capital
Building career capital is crucial for success, impact, and job satisfaction in the long run. The top performers in any field have a disproportionate impact, so excelling in your job can lead to greater influence and opportunities. It also contributes to personal satisfaction and mastery. Career capital includes skills, connections, credentials, character, and financial runway. Gaining career capital early on is essential, as it enables you to become more productive and opens doors to impactful positions. Exploring various options and experimenting are valuable in finding the right fit and optimizing career capital.
Predicting Career Fit
Predicting career fit is challenging, and relying solely on intuition or career tests is unreliable. Instead, take an empirical approach and think like a scientist. Make a list of potential options and define key uncertainties. Investigate those uncertainties systematically, starting with quick and low-cost tests. Speak to experts in the field, observe the job's day-to-day reality, and assess how your strengths align with the role. Consider multiple perspectives and combine them to make a more informed decision. This process of exploration and evaluation helps narrow down options and increase the likelihood of finding the right career fit.
Balancing Exploration and Commitment
While exploration is vital, excessive switching can be costly and hinder progress. It's advisable to explore more when younger and when uncertainties are greater. Explore cheaper options first, order potential paths strategically, and consider wild cards for unconventional opportunities. Shooting for the stars can be rational if the potential upside is substantial. Quitting a job when uncertain is recommended to avoid the sunk cost bias. Balancing exploration and commitment is crucial, and finding the right fit often involves trying different paths, learning from experiences, and adapting your career journey over time.
The importance of exploring and trying different career paths
The podcast emphasizes the significance of exploring various career options and trying different paths to find the right fit. It acknowledges that it is normal to not know your calling or passion from the start and suggests treating your career as an experiment. By making best guesses about potential careers, identifying uncertainties, and investigating them through research and conversations with professionals in the field, you can narrow down your options. It also highlights the value of failure as a learning experience and the need to continuously update your career plan.
Creating a career plan and the importance of long-term vision
The podcast explains the importance of having a long-term vision for your career, even though it is hard to predict the future accurately. The vision should include a list of global problems you want to work on and potential roles or types of work to aim for. It suggests creating an A.B.Z plan, where Plan A represents your best-guess longer-term option, Plan B includes alternative paths if Plan A doesn't work out, and Plan Z serves as a temporary fallback option. The podcast also emphasizes the need to set review points to reassess your plan, prioritize working on concrete next steps, and consider different approaches to reduce risks and increase your chances of success.
How to Find a Job
Finding a job is a sales process. Get lots of leads, prove you can do the work, seek referrals, negotiate, and stay motivated.
The Power of Joining a Community
Joining a community can boost your career by providing connections, support, and opportunities for collaboration. Effective altruism is a valuable community that promotes applying four key values to have a positive impact: doing more to help, striving for equality, questioning beliefs, and working cooperatively. Consider joining communities focused on specific global problems or ways of doing good, such as biosecurity, global health, or animal welfare. Connect with like-minded people and take advantage of shared aims to achieve greater impact.
An audio version of the 2023 80,000 Hours career guide, also available on our website, on Amazon and on Audible.
If you know someone who might find our career guide helpful, you can get a free copy sent to them by going to 80000hours.org/gift.
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