Week 8 - Putting it into Practice
Call to Vigilance
Call to Vigilance > Action
Now Altruism
Take whatever robustly good actions you can today
Patient Altruism
Why?
Uncertainty
odd mix of intensity, urgency, confusion and hesitance
Put yourself in a better position to take important actions when the time comes.
Finding ways to interact more with, and learn more about, key topics/fields/industries such as AI, science and technology generally and relevant areas of policy and national security.
Taking opportunities to move your career in a direction that is more likely to be relevant
Connecting with other people interested in these topics
Confident Perspectives
Dim outlines of the most important events in humanity's past or future.
A case that they're approaching us more quickly than it seems - whether or not we're ready.
A sense that the world and the rules we're all used to can't be relied on.
That we need to lift our gaze above the daily torrent of tangible, relatable news - and try to wrap our heads around weirder, wilder matters that are more likely to be seen as the headlines about this era billions of years from now.
We as a civilization aren't yet up to the challenges it presents.
If that's going to change, it needs to start with more people seeing the situation for what it is, taking it seriously, taking action when they can - and when not, staying vigilant.
Effective altruism as the most exciting cause in the world
Reasons for Excitement
Update misconception: one person just can't do much
The average person working in an ordinary job can potentially save several lives a year, just by donating a measly 10% of their income and doing literally nothing else altruistic!
if you focus on the right career, you can have an even bigger impact!
Acknowledging Personal Fit > Forcing yourself
it's about doing the best that you can, given your personality, talents and interests.
Analytic?
Maybe consider research, in one form or another.
Want to mostly support the cause from the side, not thinking about things too much?
Let the existing charity evaluation organizations guide who you donate to and don't worry about the rest. Or help out other effective altruists.
People person?
Plenty of ways you could have an impact. There's always something you can do - and still be effective. It's not about needing to be superhuman,
Improving
This isn't just some fuzzy feelgood thing where you're taking things on faith.
People in the community are constantly debating these things, looking for ways to improve and to become even better at doing good.
If you have even the slightest inclination, you're encouraged to participate and refine the ideas
Summary of 80,000 Hours’ key ideas
TL;DR: Get good at something that lets you effectively contribute to big and neglected global problems.
Increasing impact with your career by
Help solve a more pressing problem.
you can compare issues in terms of scale, neglectedness, and tractability.
Neglect e.g., It turns out that some issues receive hundreds of times less attention relative to how big and solvable they seem.
transformative technologies, which could lead to existential risks and make now a crucial moment that could affect the future for many generations to come
Neglect
our current institutions are doing little to address these issues.
Find a path that gives you a bigger opportunity to contribute to those problems.
Some paths give you more leverage than others, in that they enable you to mobilise more resources (money, attention, skill) towards the most pressing problems.
Examples
working in government and policy; mobilising others or spreading ideas (e.g. media)
helping people or organisations that have a lot of leverage
making well-targeted donations
helping to develop certain research and technology.
Solvability
some solutions make 10 or 100 times as much progress on pressing problems per year of work
Choice
‘hits-based’ approach to doing this, which involves using rules of thumb to find solutions that have an above-average chance of being among the most effective.
Further list of ideas for career paths
Find work that fits you better.
The most productive people in a field often have far more output than the average.
How do you actually find the best possible path?
make some best guesses at the most promising long-term paths
identify key uncertainties
do low-cost tests to resolve them
make a best guess
then update your guesses every 1–3 years
Phases
Explore
learn about and test out promising longer-term paths, until you feel ready to bet on one for at least a few years.
Invest
take a bet on a longer-term path by building the career capital that will most accelerate you in it.
Most people only reach their peak productivity between the ages of 40–60, so we also encourage people to invest in their skills, connections, reputation, and so on to have more leverage in the future.
Deploy
use the career capital you’ve built to support the most effective solutions to the most pressing problems at the time.
Additional Facilitators
Enjoyment = Sustainability
look for work you enjoy and that meets your other needs.
If a path feels like a constant struggle, it’s probably not sustainable or inspiring to others, and so probably not ideal even for your impact.
My current impressions on career choice for longtermists
Frameworks for Career choice
Advice is to use multiple rather than only one
Career Paths
80,000 Hours emphasize "paths" to particular roles working on particular causes
Causes
Ai Safety, Biorisk, etc.
Do work you can be great at," "Do work that builds your career capital and gives you more options.
Aptitudes
Benefits
one can build in a wide variety of roles and causes (including non-effective-altruist organizations)
apply to a wide variety of longtermist-relevant jobs
relatively straightforward to get a sense of one's promise for, and progress on, a given "aptitude" if one chooses to do so
Example
"helping organizations achieve their objectives via good business practices,"
"evaluating claims against each other,"
"communicating already-existing ideas to not-yet-sold audiences," etc.
Singular
Organization building, running and boosting
Political and bureaucratic
Conceptual and empirical research
Communicator
Entrepreneur
Community building
Software engineering
Information security
Academia
Hybrid
Combinging 'Software Engineering' & Project/People Manager
Allows them to contribute more as a software engineering manager than they could as either a software engineer or a nontechnical manager
e.g., Nick Bostrom writing Superintelligence
"conceptual and empirical research" often goes hand in hand with "communicator"
Ways to contribute to Longtermism despite Career
'I would think anyone who’s broadly succeeding at many of the above things - regardless of what their job is - is having a large expected longtermist impact.'
Spreading longtermist ideas within personal networks
Showing up in (and/or creating and hosting) longtermist and effective altruist spaces
Being a role model
Being a vocal “customer” of the effective altruist and longtermist communities
Raising children
Donating
Being prepared to do direct longtermist work if the need/opportunity arises
How to choose & develop an aptitude?
Autonomy
Career choice is such a personal matter and it's so easy for an advice-giver to be oblivious to important things about someone's personality, situation, etc
How to approach Singular vs Hybrid?
Start with one aptitude, and then notice an opportunity to develop another aptitude that complements it and improves your career options.
I wouldn't generally recommend pursuing multiple aptitudes at once early in one's career.
Requires sticking with it and putting a lot of time in for a long time
How?
enjoy their work
thrive in their work environment
"Do what you'll succeed at."
"Take your intuitions and feelings seriously."
Experiment
learning that some sort of job isn't what one pictured, and changing course.
I think people learn more effectively when they follow their curiosity and excitement; this doesn't mean that their curiosity and excitement are pointing directly at the optimal ultimate destination.)
You have more than one goal, and that's fine
I do think significant resources should go toward improving the world
It is okay to have multiple goals
Not everything you do is in the “effectiveness” bucket.
Why?
It doesn’t make sense to mix these activities
to spend time with my kids in a way that contributes to my work or to do my job in a way that my kids enjoy.
Sunday morning is for making pancakes for my kids. Monday morning is for work.
It’s fine to support your local arts organization because their work gives you joy, because you want to be active in your community, or because they helped you and you want to reciprocate.
Examples
I have a goal of improving the world.
I have a goal of enjoying time with my children.
I have a goal of being a good spouse.
I have a goal of feeling connected in my friendships and community.
Distinguish & Enjoy
Examine whether they're doing things for more self-regarding personal reasons, or for optimizer-y improve-the-world reasons
Goal: support my friend and our friendship
If I donate to my friend’s fundraiser for her sick uncle,
not my goal of “make the world as good as possible.”
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