Having read the book, one thing that I’ll say is that if you’ve already done the 80,000 Hours online career guide, you won’t get a ton extra out of the book. It has more citations, slightly more anecdotes, and a larger section on various risks from AI, but overall, I would say that if you’ve done the old online version, you get 93% of the content and 95% of the important advice from just the career guide. There is, however, a newer section on which skills AI is unlikely to automate.
Still, buying the book this week is good if you want to help get it on a Bestseller list. If you think more people should read it, that’s a good reason to buy.
Interesting! My own approach to life has definitely been the opposite of what they recommend: follow my passion, without any particular goal of making an impact on the world through my work.
Probably most people who've made a big impact on the world have done exactly that. For example, Alexander Fleming ended up in microbiology because he went to work in a particular hospital because he liked the rifle club and social scene, met a mentor there who got him interested, and generally he was very curious and a master noticer. Had he started out calculating how best to impact the world, he might have gone into government or media or something and never invented antibiotics.
I reckon Dave's got the right approach. If you've got a passion for something constructive and can make a living from it, might as well go for it.
Thank
Having read the book, one thing that I’ll say is that if you’ve already done the 80,000 Hours online career guide, you won’t get a ton extra out of the book. It has more citations, slightly more anecdotes, and a larger section on various risks from AI, but overall, I would say that if you’ve done the old online version, you get 93% of the content and 95% of the important advice from just the career guide. There is, however, a newer section on which skills AI is unlikely to automate.
Still, buying the book this week is good if you want to help get it on a Bestseller list. If you think more people should read it, that’s a good reason to buy.
Yes it's an upgraded version of the career guide. The main additions are:
1. New chapter on which skills will be most valuable in the future (chapter 8)
2. Updated advice on best jobs for career capital (chapter 9)
3. More discussion of how AI and time horizons affect decisions about career capital
4. New chapters on how much to explore and how to make decisions (though partly adapted from other 80k articles)
5. More discussion of character and avoiding harm (mainly in chapter 5)
6. New half chapter on AI risks and the next wave of most pressing problems
7. Plus intro, full round of edits, new stories, updates to the research etc.
Thanks for supporting us in the lists!
Appreciate the heads up 👍
Interesting! My own approach to life has definitely been the opposite of what they recommend: follow my passion, without any particular goal of making an impact on the world through my work.
:(
Probably most people who've made a big impact on the world have done exactly that. For example, Alexander Fleming ended up in microbiology because he went to work in a particular hospital because he liked the rifle club and social scene, met a mentor there who got him interested, and generally he was very curious and a master noticer. Had he started out calculating how best to impact the world, he might have gone into government or media or something and never invented antibiotics.
I reckon Dave's got the right approach. If you've got a passion for something constructive and can make a living from it, might as well go for it.
"free online"
Bentham this link is still to the Amazon site.
Oops, fixed thanks