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Top areas to work on
Preventing an AI-related catastrophe
Catastrophic pandemics
Nuclear weapons
Great power war
Factory farming
Global priorities research
Building effective altruism
Improving decision making
Emerging challenges
The moral status of digital minds
Risks of stable totalitarianism
S-risks
Space governance
Civilisation resilience
Wild animal suffering
Other pressing problems
Global health
Climate change
See all problem profiles →
See all →
Top skills to build early in your career
Policy and politics
Organisation-building
Research
Communicating ideas
Software and tech
Engineering
Experience with an emerging power
Expertise relevant to a top problem
See all our skills pages →
See all →
Our list of top high-impact career paths
AI governance and policy
AI safety technical research
Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
Information security in high-impact areas
Expert in AI hardware
China-related AI safety and governance
Grantmaker
Helping build the effective altruism community
Nuclear weapons safety and security
Operations in high-impact organisations
Research into global priorities
More promising paths
Be a founder
Software engineering
Journalism
See more →
How to build great career capital
See our top recommendations →
See all career reviews →
Read the full series →
Introduction
Your most important decision
Foundations
A definition of impact
Longtermism
Harmful jobs
Global priorities
Problem selection
Existential risks
Top problems list
Contribution
How to think about your contribution
Effective solutions
List of high-impact careers
Personal fit
Gut instinct
Differences in productivity
Comparative advantage
Strategy
Ambition
Coordination
Exploration
Impact and satisfaction
Accidental harm
Read the full series →
Career planning and decision making
How to make your career plan
All our other planning resources
Selected topics
Moral philosophy
Career capital
Job satisfaction
Anonymous advice
Unconventional advice
Advocacy
Existential risk
Top-recommended careers
See all topics →
Top articles from outside our guides
Best charities to donate to
Misconceptions about effective altruism
High-impact research questions
What are your chances of getting elected to Congress, if you try?
How many lives does a doctor save?
What's the impact of voting?
Advice for undergraduates
All articles →
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Home Authors William MacAskill

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Author archive: William MacAskill

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All18
Blog posts16
Career reviews1
Key articles1

2023

March

Is it ever OK to take a harmful job in order to do more good? An in-depth analysis (Updated)
Article

2022

May

Effective altruism and the current funding situation
Blog post

2019

August

Philosophy academia
Career review

2017

June

Is it ever OK to take a harmful job in order to do more good? An in-depth analysis (First published)
Article

2015

November

One of the most exciting new effective altruist organisations: An interview with David Goldberg of the Founders Pledge
Blog post

September

What do journalists say about journalism as a high-impact career?
Blog post
What do leaders of effective nonprofits say about working in nonprofits?
Blog post

July

Defining ‘Earning to Give’
Blog post
Why you usually shouldn’t work at nonprofits straight after graduation
Blog post
80,000 Hours thinks that only a small proportion of people should earn to give long term
Blog post

June

I want to make a difference. Should I become a philosopher?
Blog post

2014

July

How to influence policy? An interview with Owen Barder of the Center for Global Development
Blog post

2013

June

80,000 Hours Mentioned in TED
Blog post

May

The best career advice you never heard in a graduation speech
Blog post

2012

October

The most important unsolved problems in ethics
Blog post

September

How to be a high impact philosopher, part II
Blog post

June

Following in Schindler’s footsteps
Blog post

May

How to be a high impact philosopher
Blog post

January

Practical ethics given moral uncertainty
Blog post

Filter by content type:
All18
Blog posts16
Career reviews1
Key articles1

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80,000 Hours is an Effective Ventures project. Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) (EV UK) is a charity in England and Wales (with registered charity number 1149828, registered company number 07962181, and is also a Netherlands registered tax-deductible entity ANBI 825776867). Effective Ventures Foundation USA Inc. (EV US) is a section 501(c)(3) organization in the USA (EIN 47-1988398). EV UK and EV US are separate charities that collaborate closely under the “Effective Ventures” name.

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