#35 – Ben Todd on Choosing a Career and Defining Longtermism

Ben Todd is the CEO & founder of 80,000 Hours, and helped to start the effective altruism movement.

80,000 Hours is a non-profit that provides free research and support to help people find careers that effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems.

In our interview, we discuss:

• Why your choice of career could be the most important ethical decision you ever get to make;
• 80K’s ‘problem, solution, personal fit’ framework for choosing a career;
• Whether longtermism should be considered a research project or a social movement;
• The idea of using leverage to multiply the difference you're able to make.

Note that if you don't need to hear an introduction to the key ideas of 80,000 Hours, you can skip to about the 34-minute mark.

You can read more about the topics we cover this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/ben.

Key links mentioned in the interview:

• The 80,000 Hours website
• A (free) weekly career planning course for positive impact
• The 80,000 Hours 'Key Ideas' series
• The 80,000 Hours job board
• The 80,000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin

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Thanks for listening!