80,000 Hours - Narrations

A overview of all our advice. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (01:34) 1. Choose which issues to focus on. (02:04) Direct risks (02:30) Risk factors (03:26) Going meta (04:32) How should you pick among different issues? (05:18) 2. Choose an approach. (06:20) Research (08:59) 80,000 Hours Podcast episodes about or showcasing relevant research (09:48) Government and policy (11:36) Check out policy roles...

Below we list some more career options beyond our priority paths that seem promising to us for positively influencing the long-term future. Some of these are likely to be written up as priority paths in the future, or wrapped into existing ones, but we haven’t written full profiles for them yet—for example policy careers outside AI and biosecurity policy that seem promising from a longtermist pers...

Effective altruism is about using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:12) How can we use our resources to help others the most? (02:07) Summary (03:28) Our overall view (05:08) Why are the ideas of effective altruism important? (05:13) Many attempts to do good fail (05:56) Large differences i...

Should I quit my job? Which of my offers should I take? Which long-term options should I explore? These decisions will affect how you spend years of your time, so the stakes are high. But they’re also an area where you shouldn’t expect your intuition to be a reliable guide . This means it’s worth taking a more systematic approach. What might a good career decision process look like? A common appro...

Summary of our understanding of the current science on key questions about COVID-19 (as of 3 April, 2020), as best we can given the state of the evidence and the fast moving situation. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:28) Symptoms and severity (02:29) Who is most at risk? (03:22) How is the virus spread? (04:51) How many will be infected? (06:31) Reducing the risk of infection (07:48) Treatments (...

There are five main things we need to tackle the crisis. How to find your best opportunity to help. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (02:44) Key ways to contribute (02:48) 1. Research into the disease, treatments and vaccines (05:27) 2. Determining the right policy response (08:02) 3. Increasing healthcare capacity (10:45) If you’re an engineer (11:24) If you have medical training (12:21) If you’re a...

Many people have been asking about where they can donate to fight COVID-19, so we asked a couple of advisors for their quick thoughts. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:30) 1. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (01:50) 2. The Gates Foundation COVID-19 Funds (03:17) 3. The Center for Global Development (04:25) If you’d like to do your own research or are a large donor The original text contain...

Plagues throughout history suggest the potential for biology to cause global catastrophe. This potential increases in step with the march of biotechnological progress. Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (GCBRs) may compose a significant share of all global catastrophic risk, and, if so, a credible threat to humankind. Despite extensive existing efforts addressed to nearby fields like biodefense...

The recording may not reflect the most recent changes to this article. We’ve found that readers sometimes interpret or apply our advice inways we didn’t anticipate and wouldn’t exactly recommend. That’s hard to avoid when you’re writing for a range of people with different personalities and initial views. To help get on the same page, here’s some advice about our advice, for those about to launch...

Consulting is good career capital, but if you have a consulting offer you can likely find an even better option. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (06:20) Some potential counterarguments (07:48) Who should do management consulting? (11:07) An issue with timing job applications (11:52) What about other prestigious generalist jobs, such as investment banking, corporate law and professional services? (12:...

There are a lot of problems in the world. We show you a way to figure out which are best to work on. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (02:02) Introducing how we define the factors (03:42) Defining a problem carefully (04:55) Creating a (logarithmic) scale (06:24) How to assess scale (06:27) Definition (08:25) How to assess it (11:27) How to assess how neglected a problem is (11:32) Definition (11:41)...

There are 2 career plan mistakes: a rigid plan, and no plan at all. We see both. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:51) In a nutshell (03:06) Some arguments against long-term plans (05:51) Some arguments in favour of long-term plans (11:02) Weighing the arguments (12:17) What should go into your long-term plan? --- First published: October 1st, 2019 Last updated: October 12th, 2019 Source: https://8...

Some of the most important questions that arise for people trying to make the world a better place are philosophical. What does it mean to live a worthwhile life? What are our obligations to future generations? And how do we decide what to do when we are uncertain about the answers to these questions? Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:10) Summary (02:03) Pros (02:23) Cons (02:51) Key facts on fit (...

Technical AI safety is a multifaceted area of research, with many sub-questions in areas such as reward learning, robustness, and interpretability. These will all need to be answered in order to make sure AI development will go well for humanity as systems become more and more powerful. Not all of these questions are best tackled with abstract mathematics research; some can be approached with conc...

This list is preliminary. We wanted to publish our existing thoughts on what to do with each skill, but can easily see ourselves changing our minds over the coming years. You can read about our general process and what career paths we recommend in our full article. Sometimes, however, it's possible to give more specific advice about what options to consider to people who already have pre-existing...

A list of the most urgent global issues, based on research with researchers at Oxford University. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (01:31) The list of global issues (02:07) Which global issue should you work on? (02:23) How can you make the greatest contribution to solving a problem? --- First published: August 8th, 2014 Last updated: August 16th, 2018 Source: https://80000hours.org/articles/cause-sel...

“Do the job that’s your comparative advantage” might sound like obvious advice, but it turns out to be more complicated. In this article, we sketch a naive application of comparative advantage to choosing between two career options, and show that it doesn’t apply. Then we give a more complex example where comparative advantage comes back into play, and show how it’s different from “personal fit”....

Want to get a job in Congress? Here's what it takes to get one — and why it matters. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (01:38) Summary (02:03) Pros (02:21) Cons (02:41) Key facts on fit (03:01) Next steps (03:18) Recommended (03:28) Review status (03:33) What this profile is based on (04:14) What is this career path? (06:00) How high-impact is it to work as a congressional staffer? (06:29) The governme...

Going into law isn’t going out of style. Law ranks among the top five career options for students and is one of the most popular degree courses at undergraduate level. Still, unless you are an unusually good fit, there are likely to be better options. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (01:48) Summary (02:45) Pros (02:52) Cons (03:23) Key facts on fit (03:37) Next steps (03:49) Not usually recommended (...

After Labour’s landslide victory, Tony Blair rang Alan Milburn to say ‘We haven't got a health policy. Your job is to get us one.’ Milburn ‘was hungry for ideas’ and met with a civil servant: Graham Winyard, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer. .. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (01:55) Summary (02:29) Pros (02:48) Cons (03:09) Key facts on fit (03:42) Next steps (04:03) Get free one-on-one career advic...

When people think of careers that do good, often the first path that comes to mind is working at a non-profit. But we think this path is often overrated... Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (01:52) Summary (02:18) Pros (02:34) Cons (02:51) Key facts on fit (03:06) Next steps (03:58) Recommended (04:07) Review status (04:34) When is it high impact to work at a nonprofit? (08:23) But won't I be replaceab...

A data-driven ranking of which job skills make you most employable by 80,000 Hours, a career research group founded by Oxford academics. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (02:04) Which job skills are most employable? Our methodology and results. (06:23) Why aren't STEM skills used in the most desirable jobs? (07:38) How trends in automation impact STEM skills (09:53) Evidence for an oversupply of (some...

Lots of government and charity programmes aim to improve education, health, unemployment and so on. How many of these efforts work? Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (01:53) David Anderson's updated estimates (04:18) What counts as a weak effect? (06:17) Estimates within international development, and meta-analyses vs. RCTs (11:08) Meta-analyses of UK education with Danielle Mason (13:58) Other sources...

We explain why it’s a high-impact area, how to work out if it’s for you, and exactly how and where to apply. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:09) AI is improving rapidly. Here's how to learn the technology that's driving it. (01:57) Summary (02:27) Pros (02:45) Cons (03:03) Key facts on fit (03:15) Next steps (03:38) Recommended (03:47) Review status (03:52) What this profile is based on (04:21) W...

The pros, cons, nearby alternatives, and how to get hired. Narrated by AI. --- Outline: (00:10) Summary (00:43) Pros (01:04) Cons (01:30) Key facts on fit (01:45) Next steps (02:21) Recommended (02:30) Review status (02:47) What do we mean by working at effective altruist organisations? (05:50) What roles are there? (07:47) Why is working at an EA organisation high impact? (08:10) Track record of...