In this week of the programme, we’ll consider how different factors fit together when choosing a career: which global problems you’re working on; which solutions you will be trying to implement with your career; how personally suited you are to the work and whether it fulfils your other priorities, beyond your desire to help improve the future.
We will also discuss whether it makes sense for longtermists to also be interested in pursuing the best opportunities for improving the world today, perhaps because of ‘worldview diversification’.
Curriculum
Core materials
Preliminary:
'Advice on how to read our advice' - 80,000 Hours
On personal fit and personal skills:
'My current impressions on career choice for longtermists' - Holden Karnofsky
On the case for doing non-longtermist work:
'Worldview Diversification' Holden Karnofsky for Open Philanthropy
Recommended reading
'How to identify your personal strengths' - 80,000 Hours
More to explore
'Famine, affluence and morality' - Peter Singer. This essay argues that there are strong moral demands on us to make sacrifices when the benefits we could produce for others are drastically larger than the costs to us from making these sacrifices. Views like Singer’s suggest we should always prioritise impartial impact when it conflicts with our other priorities.