80,000 Hours - Narrations

Let’s say you’re planning to buy a new laptop — well, how do you choose that laptop? You’re probably not going to pick randomly. And you’re probably not even going to choose the prettiest one either. I’m guessing that you’ll put a bit of research into it. And that’s just common sense. You’ll likely cross-reference a couple of different sources, try to find a laptop that’s endorsed by a few people...

Help grow, shape, and support organisations working to address global problems by working in the effective altruism community. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:38) Recommended (00:47) Review status (00:52) Why might working in effective altruism organisations be high impact? (01:44) What does this path involve? (04:56) Organising a local effective altruism group (06:48) Examples of people pursuing...

As a grantmaker, you can direct millions of dollars to tackle the world's most pressing problems. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:32) Recommended (00:41) Review status (00:47) Why might grantmaking be high impact? (02:06) What does this path involve? (05:21) Closely related paths (06:56) Examples of people pursuing this path (07:02) Ajeya Cotra (07:42) How to assess your fit (10:25) How to enter...

And if you’re completely new to effective altruism, you could check out this eight-minute introduction we put at the start of the podcast series: Narrated by the author. --- First published: December 14th, 2020 Source: https://80000hours.org/podcast/effective-altruism-an-introduction

We can be uncertain about matters of fact, like whether it'll rain tomorrow, but we can also be uncertain about moral claims, like how much to value the interests of future generations. In the last decade, there has been more study of how to act when uncertain about what's of value, and our cofounder, Will MacAskill, has written a book on the topic. An approach that's common is to pick the view th...

Imagine you're at the scene of an accident and you see an injured person. In your enthusiasm to help, you push the paramedics out of the way and perform CPR on the injured person yourself. You're successful and bring them back to consciousness, but because you're less well-trained than the paramedics, you cause permanent damage to the person's spine. If you had let the paramedics perform CPR inste...

Many people argue that the effects of our actions are so diverse and unpredictable that it's impossible to know whether they're ultimately good or bad — so it doesn't make sense to struggle to increase our impact. The pop version of the criticism is that if you save a life, that person might become the next Hitler — so your well-intentioned action might have actually resulted in the deaths of mill...

Will the future of humanity be wild, or boring? It's natural to think that if we're trying to be sober and measured, and predict what will really happen rather than spin an exciting story, it's more likely than not to be sort of... dull. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (05:44) Read the full series (06:35) Learn more (07:31) What are the most pressing world problems? --- First published: September 22n...

This article is the conclusion of our old ‘key ideas’ series, which we stopped updating in 2023. We’d suggest reading the article in our advanced series instead. We believe that some of the career paths open to you likely have over 100 times more positive impact than other paths you might take. Why? In our key ideas series, we’ve shown that you can have more impact by: 1. Finding a bigger and/or m...

If you want to do your own research into which problems are pressing, below is a process you can work through. It's one stage of our full career planning process and accompanying planning template. Creating your own ranking of pressing problems according to your values and beliefs about the world is a lot of work, but it can also be really worthwhile, especially because it can give you more of an...

This article summarises our old ‘key ideas’ series, which we stopped updating in 2023. We’d suggest reading the summary of our career guide instead. TL;DR: Get good at something that lets you effectively contribute to big and neglected global problems. Narrated by the author. --- First published: September 13th, 2021 Source: https://80000hours.org/key-ideas-2023/summary

Some might say to do what you love means giving up on having as much social impact. We think the two things don’t need to be in tension. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (02:50) Learn more (03:20) Read next (03:31) Plus, join our newsletter and we’ll mail you a free book --- First published: September 9th, 2021 Source: https://80000hours.org/articles/do-what-you-love-vs-impact --- Narrated by TYPE III...

If you want to have an impact, the aim is to find a job that has the potential to make a big contribution to a pressing problem, and that’s a good fit for you. But how can you find a job like that? In the strategy section of our key ideas series, we discuss the value of exploration and career capital, as well as many other ideas, like why to be more ambitious. Here we sum them up into a simple car...

If you want to help others, should you follow your passion? Probably not. You'll do far more good if you focus on bigger and more problem areas. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:38) An introduction to comparing global problems (01:33) Some problems are bigger than others (04:17) Some problems are more neglected than others (07:25) How much do problems differ overall? (08:35) What does this spread...

It sounds obvious that it's better to help two people than one if the cost is the same. However, when applied to the world today, this obvious-sounding idea leads to surprising conclusions. In short, we believe we need a new approach to having an impact: effective altruism. Modern levels of wealth and technology have given some members of the present generation potentially enormous abilities to he...

This article is the introduction to our old ‘key ideas’ series, which we stopped updating in 2023. We’d suggest reading the article in our advanced series instead. The recording may not reflect the most recent changes to this article. When people think of living ethically, they most often think of things like recycling, fair trade, and volunteering. But that’s missing something huge: your choice o...

You might be able to use your career to greatly help hundreds of people, reduce the chance of global disasters, or have a big positive impact in another way -- while doing work that's also personally fulfilling. But working out how to do this is tricky, not least because it's hard to agree on what the terms 'help people', 'positive impact', and 'personally fulfilling' actually mean -- let alone cr...

Find the full career planning series here. The most important sections in each article are marked with ★'s. Why to make longer-term plans People that we speak to in our one-on-one career advising often try to either make overly specific longer-term plans, or make none at all. Both are mistakes. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:18) The goal (02:55) Why to make longer-term plans (05:35) What should...

We took 10 years of research and what we’ve learned from advising 1,000+ people on how to build high-impact careers, compressed that into an eight-week course to create your career plan, and then compressed that into this three-page summary of the main points. (It’s especially aimed at people who want a career that’s both satisfying and has a significant positive impact, but much of the advice app...

The best advice we’ve found on identifying your strengths, turned into a 3-step process, plus a list of personal strengths used by researchers. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (03:06) How to identify your personal strengths? A summary (05:04) How to use the full process (05:41) What are strengths? (06:53) 1. Gather data (07:05) Look for bright spots in your work history compared to those with similar...

We talk a lot about where to donate, but people also often ask us about where is best to volunteer. This is not something we've researched, but here are some quick notes on the topic. First we'll discuss some ways in which volunteering can be overrated and not as impactful as it first seems. But then we'll go through how volunteering can be impactful in some circumstances, especially if you're try...

Looking for college advice? Here’s what we know about how to choose a major, and what to do once you start studying. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:28) Priorities (01:43) Which degree subject? (05:27) How to spend your time while at college (05:31) How much time to spend studying (08:56) How to study effectively (09:33) How to explore future career options (11:57) What else to do outside your de...

Could one vote — your vote — swing an entire election? Most of us abandoned this seeming fantasy not too long after we learned how elections work. But the chances are higher than you might think. If you’re in a competitive district in a competitive election, the odds that your vote will flip a national election often fall between 1 in 1 million and 1 in 10 million. That’s a very small probability,...

The ability to weigh complex information is essential and can be developed. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:42) Why good judgement is so valuable when aiming to have an impact (04:13) More on what good judgement is (07:32) Some notes on how to improve your judgement (09:37) Spend an hour or two doing calibration training (10:22) Practice forecasting (11:43) Apply these techniques (16:14) Try to d...

Seeking inspiration for research questions? Discover examples of open questions that could have a big social impact. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:13) About these research questions (02:12) What are these lists based on? (03:18) Biology and genetics (04:59) Business and organisational development (05:48) China studies (07:11) Climate studies and earth sciences (08:15) Cognitive science and neur...