80,000 Hours

A ridiculously in-depth guide to finding a fulfilling and impactful career in the age of AI

“This career guide is among the most thoughtful and grounded I’ve seen.”—Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author of Slow Productivity

You have about 80,000 hours in your career: 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 40 years. This means your choice of career is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make.

Choose well, and you can have a more rewarding, interesting life, and also help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. Choose poorly, and you could waste decades.

So what should you do? Most modern advice is based on no research, instead offering misleading platitudes like “follow your passion.” It’s surprisingly out-of-date, focusing on traditional paths rather than those most likely to thrive in an age of AI. If you want to help others, you’re often simply told to become a nurse or doctor, when there are many other paths which can save more lives. In fact, some careers have hundreds of times more impact than others, but most of us have no idea which ones.

Benjamin Todd is the founder of 80,000 Hours, a nonprofit that has spent over fifteen years researching how to have a meaningful and impactful career that still pays the bills. In this book, he introduces a tried-and-tested toolkit that has already helped thousands of people change their career paths. It covers:

• What really makes for a dream job, and why finding it probably doesn’t involve “following your passion”
• How to identify which global problems are most pressing, and why they might involve AI as much as climate change
• Which roles are likely to be automated, and how to ensure yours isn’t among them

Whether you’re just starting out, looking to switch paths, or want to have a bigger impact in your current career, it’s full of practical tips and tools that can help. You’ll come away with a plan to use your 80,000 hours in a way that’s rewarding and makes a difference.