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  Introduction
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  This could be the most important century
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  Some solutions are far more effective than others
  Our list of high-impact careers
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  Fit is more important than you think
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  What is career capital?
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  Aim higher: a rational case for dreaming big
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Read the full guide →
Introduction
Your most important decision
Summary
Foundations
A definition of impact
Future generations & their moral significance
Effective altruism
Global priorities
Why problem selection is crucial
The case for reducing existential risks
This could be the most important century
Our current list of pressing problems
Contribution
Which careers let you contribute most?
Some solutions are far more effective than others
Our list of high-impact careers
Personal fit
Fit is more important than you think
Strategy
What is career capital?
How much to explore?
Coordination and impact
Balancing impact and doing what you love
Aim higher: a rational case for dreaming big
Three career stages
Conclusion
How much do careers differ in impact?
Read the full guide →
Go to problems hub →
Top areas to work on
Preventing an AI-related catastrophe
Catastrophic pandemics
Building effective altruism
Global priorities research
Nuclear war
Epistemics and institutional decision making
Climate change
Great power conflict
Other promising areas
Promoting positive values
Space governance
See more →
Go to problems hub →
See all our career reviews →
Key categories of impactful careers
Government and policy
Organisation-building at effective nonprofits
Research
Applying an unusual strength to a needed niche
Communication
Earning to give
List of top-recommended career paths
AI safety technical research
Long-term AI policy
Founder of new projects
Helping build the effective altruism community
Grantmaker
Operations management in high-impact organisations
Research into global priorities
Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
China-related AI safety and governance
Forecasting research and implementation
Sometimes-recommended paths
High-impact but especially competitive
Promising but under-researched
Impactful if you're an especially good fit
Recommended career capital
Steps to build your skills and network
Making the most of your current job
Doing good in any career
How to invest in yourself
See all our career reviews →
See all planning resources →
Create a high-impact career plan
8-week career planning course
Summary
Career plan template
Annual career check-up
Make good career decisions
Make an immediate decision
Improve your decision-making skills
See all planning resources →
Selected topics
Moral philosophy
Skills
Job satisfaction
Anonymous advice
Unconventional advice
What to study
Advocacy
Catastrophic risks
Meta-causes
Priority paths
See all topics →
Top articles from outside our guides
What makes for a dream job?
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
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2017 career guide
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Big picture (105)
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Priority paths (141)
- AI policy (22)
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Updates (41)

Topic archive: Priority paths

Subtopics in "Priority paths":

AI policy (22)
AI technical safety (29)
Biorisk strategy & policy (22)
China specialists (5)
Earning to give in quant trading (6)
Forecasting & related research and implementation (14)
Grantmaker (14)
Operations at high impact organisations (13)
Global priorities research (35)
Roles at effective altruism organisations (16)

Filter by content type:
All141
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All content tagged "Priority paths"

2022

November

Global priorities research (Updated)
Problem profile

October

Anonymous advice: If you want to reduce AI risk, should you take roles that advance AI capabilities?
Article

September

#137 – Andreas Mogensen on whether effective altruism is just for consequentialists
Podcast
What are the most pressing world problems? (Updated)
Article
Epistemics and institutional decision-making (Updated)
Problem profile

July

#133 – Max Tegmark on how a ‘put-up-or-shut-up’ resolution led him to work on AI and algorithmic news selection
Podcast
Preventing catastrophic pandemics (Updated)
Problem profile

June

#132 – Nova DasSarma on why information security may be critical to the safe development of AI systems
Podcast

May

Let’s get serious about preventing the next pandemic
Blog post
Clay Graubard and Robert de Neufville on forecasting the war in Ukraine
Podcast (80k After Hours)
#130 – Will MacAskill on balancing frugality with ambition, whether you need longtermism, and mental health under pressure
Podcast
Data collection for AI alignment
Career review

April

#127 – Sam Bankman-Fried on taking a high-risk approach to crypto and doing good
Podcast

March

Engineering
Career review
Operations management in high-impact organisations (Updated)
Article

February

China-related AI safety and governance paths (First published)
Career review
Software engineering
Career review

2021

December

#118 – Jaime Yassif on safeguarding bioscience to prevent catastrophic lab accidents and bioweapons development
Podcast

November

China-related AI safety and governance paths (Updated)
Career review
Government and policy in an area relevant to a top problem
Article
Organisation-building at effective nonprofits
Article

October

Manager of a long-term philanthropic fund
Career review
Expert in AI hardware
Career review
Specialist in emerging global powers
Career review
Research management
Career review
Become an executive assistant for someone doing especially high-impact work
Career review
Policy careers focused on other pressing global issues
Career review
Non-technical roles in leading AI labs
Career review
Forecasting and related research and implementation
Career review
Earning to give in a high-paying role, such as quantitative trading
Career review
Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
Career review
Research into global priorities
Career review
Help build the effective altruism community
Career review
Grantmaker focused on pressing world problems
Career review
AI safety technical research
Career review
Long-term AI policy strategy research and implementation
Career review
#112 – Carl Shulman on the common-sense case for existential risk work and its practical implications
Podcast
Improving China-Western coordination on global catastrophic risks (Updated)
Career review

August

#110 – Holden Karnofsky on building aptitudes and kicking ass
Podcast
#109 – Holden Karnofsky on the most important century
Podcast
#108 – Chris Olah on working at top AI labs without an undergrad degree
Podcast
#107 – Chris Olah on what the hell is going on inside neural networks
Podcast

July

#105 – Alexander Berger on improving global health and wellbeing in clear and direct ways
Podcast

June

#104 – Pardis Sabeti on the Sentinel system for detecting and stopping pandemics
Podcast
#103 – Max Roser on building the world’s first great source of COVID-19 data at Our World in Data
Podcast

May

Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems — curated episodes from The 80,000 Hours Podcast
Article
#98 – Christian Tarsney on future bias and a possible solution to moral fanaticism
Podcast

March

#93 – Andy Weber on rendering bioweapons obsolete and ending the new nuclear arms race
Podcast
#92 – Brian Christian on the alignment problem
Podcast

February

#91 – Lewis Bollard on big wins against factory farming and how they happened
Podcast

January

#90 – Ajeya Cotra on worldview diversification and how big the future could be
Podcast

2020

December

The case for building expertise to work on US AI policy, and how to do it (Updated)
Article

November

Benjamin Todd on what the effective altruism community most needs (& how to analyse replaceability)
Podcast

October

#86 – Hilary Greaves on Pascal’s mugging, strong longtermism, and whether existing can be good for us
Podcast

September

Notes on good judgement and how to develop it
Blog post

August

How to use your career to help reduce existential risk
Article
Why I’ve come to think global priorities research is more important than I thought
Blog post
The emerging school of patient longtermism
Blog post

July

#81 – Ben Garfinkel on scrutinising classic AI risk arguments
Podcast
Building effective altruism (Updated)
Problem profile

June

#80 – The flaws that make today’s AI architecture unsafe and a new approach that could fix it
Podcast

May

#78 – Danny Hernandez on forecasting and the drivers of AI progress
Podcast
#77 – Top epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch on whether we’re winning or losing against COVID-19
Podcast
#76 – Tara Kirk Sell on COVID-19 misinformation, who’s done well and badly, and what we should reopen first
Podcast

April

#75 – Michelle Hutchinson on what people most often ask 80,000 Hours
Podcast
Preventing catastrophic pandemics (First published)
Problem profile
#74 – Dr Greg Lewis on COVID-19 and reducing global catastrophic biological risks
Podcast

March

Emergency episode: Rob & Howie on the menace of COVID-19, and what both governments & individuals might be able to do to help
Podcast
Reducing global catastrophic biological risks
Problem profile
#72 – Toby Ord on the precipice and humanity’s potential futures
Podcast
#71 – Benjamin Todd on the key ideas of 80,000 Hours
Podcast

February

#70 – Dr Cassidy Nelson on the twelve best ways to stop the next pandemic (and limit COVID-19)
Podcast
#69 – China, its AI dream, and what we get wrong about both
Podcast
Bonus episode: What we do and don’t know about the 2019-nCoV coronavirus
Podcast

2019

December

#67 – David Chalmers on the nature and ethics of consciousness
Podcast

November

#65 – Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins on 8 years of combating WMD terrorism
Podcast

October

#64 – Bruce Schneier on how insecure electronic voting could break the United States — and surveillance without tyranny
Podcast
A framework for comparing global problems in terms of expected impact (Updated)
Article

September

#63 – Vitalik Buterin on effective altruism, better ways to fund public goods, the blockchain’s problems so far, and how it could yet change the world
Podcast

August

Philosophy academia
Career review
#62 – Should we leave a helpful message for future civilisations, just in case humanity dies out?
Podcast

July

#61 – The new 30-person research group in DC investigating how emerging technologies could affect national security
Podcast

June

#58 – DeepMind’s plan to make AI systems robust & reliable, why it’s a core issue in AI design, and how to succeed at AI research
Podcast

May

Recap: why do some organisations say their recent hires are worth so much?
Blog post

April

#57 – How to have a big impact in government & huge organisations, based on 16 years’ experience in the White House
Podcast
#56 – Animals in the wild often suffer a great deal. What, if anything, should we do about that?
Podcast

March

#54 – OpenAI can teach algorithms to write articles, win video games & manipulate objects. How can policy keep up with AI advances?
Podcast

January

The case for building expertise to work on US AI policy, and how to do it (First published)
Article

2018

November

#48 – Computer science algorithms tackle fundamental and universal problems. Can they help us live better, or is that a false hope?
Podcast
ML engineering for AI safety & robustness: a Google Brain engineer’s guide to entering the field
Article
#47 – PhD or programming? Fast paths into aligning AI as a machine learning engineer, according to ML engineers Catherine Olsson & Daniel Ziegler
Podcast

October

#46 – Philosopher Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness, population ethics, probability within a multiverse, & harnessing the brainpower of academia to tackle the most important research questions
Podcast
#45 – Economics Prof Tyler Cowen says our overwhelming priorities should be maximising economic growth and making civilisation more stable. Is he right?
Podcast
What skills or experience are most needed within professional effective altruism in 2018? And which problems are most effective to work on? New survey of organisational leaders.
Blog post
#44 – Dr Paul Christiano on how OpenAI is developing real solutions to the ‘AI alignment problem’, and his vision of how humanity will progressively hand over decision-making to AI systems
Podcast
Academic research
Career review

September

Doing good together: how to coordinate effectively, and avoid single-player thinking
Article
American with a science PhD? Get a fast-track into AI and STEM policy by applying for the acclaimed AAAS Science & Technology Fellowship by Nov 1.
Blog post
#42 – Tackling the ethics of infinity, being clueless about the effects of our actions, and having moral empathy for intellectual adversaries, with philosopher Dr Amanda Askell
Podcast

August

#41 – If the US put fewer people in prison, would crime go up? Not at all, according to Open Philanthropy’s renowned researcher David Roodman.
Podcast
#40 – How well can we actually predict the future? Katja Grace on why expert opinion isn’t a great guide to AI’s impact and how to do better
Podcast
What are the most pressing world problems? (First published)
Article
#39 – How much should you change your beliefs based on new evidence? Dr Spencer Greenberg on the scientific approach to solving difficult everyday questions
Podcast
List of the most urgent global issues (Updated)
Article

July

#37 – Finding the best charity requires estimating the unknowable. Here’s how GiveWell tries to do that, according to researcher James Snowden.
Podcast
#36 – Tanya Singh on ending the operations management bottleneck in effective altruism
Podcast

June

#35 – How the audacity to fix things without asking permission can change the world, demonstrated by Tara Mac Aulay
Podcast

May

#33 – Oxford University’s Dr Anders Sandberg on if dictators could live forever, the annual risk of nuclear war, solar flares, and more.
Podcast
#31 – Prof Allan Dafoe on trying to prepare the world for the possibility that AI will destabilise global politics
Podcast
#29 – Where are the aliens? Three new resolutions to the Fermi Paradox. And how we could easily colonise the whole universe.
Podcast

April

#28 – Dr Owen Cotton-Barratt on why daring scientists should have to get liability insurance
Podcast
#27 – The careers and policies that can prevent global catastrophic biological risks, according to world-leading health security expert Dr Inglesby
Podcast

March

Operations management in high-impact organisations (First published)
Article
#24 – Why it’s a bad idea to break the rules, even if it’s for a good cause
Podcast
#23 – A machine learning alignment researcher on how to become a machine learning alignment researcher
Podcast

February

Improving China-Western coordination on global catastrophic risks (First published)
Career review
#21 – The world’s most intellectual foundation is hiring. Holden Karnofsky, founder of GiveWell, on how philanthropy can have maximum impact by taking big risks.
Podcast

January

#17 – Our descendants will probably see us as moral monsters. What should we do about that?
Podcast

2017

December

#16 – Michelle hopes to shape the world by shaping the ideas of intellectuals. Will global priorities research succeed?
Podcast

November

#15 – Prof Tetlock on predicting catastrophes, why keep your politics secret, and when experts know more than you
Podcast
What are the most important talent gaps in the effective altruism community?
Blog post

October

#12 – Dr Beth Cameron fought Ebola for the White House. Now she works to stop something even worse.
Podcast
#10 – You want to do as much good as possible and have billions of dollars. What do you do?
Podcast

September

#8 – Ending factory farming as soon as possible
Podcast
Epistemics and institutional decision-making (First published)
Problem profile
#7 – Julia Galef on making humanity more rational, what EA does wrong, and why Twitter isn’t all bad
Podcast
Working at effective nonprofits
Career review

August

#5 – Alex Gordon-Brown on making millions for charity each year by working in quant finance
Podcast
#4 – Howie Lempel on why we aren’t worried enough about the next pandemic — and specifically what we can do to stop it.
Podcast

July

#3 – Dr Dario Amodei on OpenAI and how AI will change the world for good and ill
Podcast

June

Machine Learning PhDs
Career review
Working at effective altruist organisations
Career review
The Schwarzman Scholarship: An exciting opportunity to learn more about China and get a Masters in Global Affairs
Blog post
Guide to working in AI policy and strategy
Article
#1 – Miles Brundage on the world’s desperate need for AI strategists and policy experts
Podcast

May

How much do hedge fund traders earn?
Blog post
Which industry has the highest-paying jobs?
Article

March

Building effective altruism (First published)
Problem profile
What skills are effective altruist organisations short of? Results from our survey.
Blog post
Some further resources on high-impact careers
Article

2016

August

AI safety syllabus
Article

June

How to do high impact research (Updated)
Article

April

Global priorities research (First published)
Problem profile
A framework for comparing global problems in terms of expected impact (First published)
Article

2015

October

Research into risks from artificial intelligence (First published)
Career review

September

Research into risks from artificial intelligence (Updated)
Career review

August

Biomedical research
Career review

July

Foundation grantmaker
Career review

2014

September

How to do high impact research (First published)
Article

August

Trading in quantitative hedge funds (for earning to give) (First published)
Career review
Improving decision making (First published)
Article
Promoting effective altruism (First published)
Article
Global priorities research (First published)
Article
List of the most urgent global issues (First published)
Article

July

Trading in quantitative hedge funds (for earning to give) (Updated)
Career review
Global priorities research (Updated)
Article

2013

November

Improving decision making (Updated)
Article
Promoting effective altruism (Updated)
Article

Filter by content type:
All141
Podcasts75
Career reviews29
Key articles20
Blog posts11
Problem profiles5
Podcasts (80k After Hours)1

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© 2021 – all rights reserved. Please contact us if you wish to redistribute, translate, or adapt this work.

80,000 Hours is a project of the Effective Ventures Foundation (England and Wales registered charity number 1149828 and registered company number 07962181) with a registered 501(c)(3) Exempt Organization in the USA (Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc., EIN 47-1988398).

Please contact us to suggest ideas, improvements, or corrections.

We do our best to provide useful information, but how you use the information is up to you. We don’t take responsibility for any loss that results from the use of information on the site. Please consult our full legal disclaimer and privacy policy.

© 2021 – all rights reserved. Please contact us if you wish to redistribute, translate, or adapt this work.