189. 80,000 Hours to Change the World – Rob Wiblin

Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin) is the Director of Research at an organization called 80,000 Hours,and host of the 80,000 Hours podcast. 80,000 hours being the amount of hours you will spend working in a typical career. 80,000 hours is dedicated to finding out just how effective various careers are, and who is suited for those careers.

We all want the work we do to matter. But how do we really know whether the work we do does matter?

The foundation of 80,000 Hours is a philosophy called Effective Altruism. The EA community asks tough questions about what are the most important issues facing humanity, and how best to address those issues. EA tends to come up with counterintuitive conclusions that go against most people’s first instincts.

You’re going to hear some of those counterintuitive conclusions. You’re also going to learn:

Why did Rob insist on having a much longer conversation than the typical one-hour conversation you hear here on Love Your Work? He has data to back up his suggestion. Why should you stop listening to your gut instincts about what actions have an impact? Following the research can increase your impact a thousand times over. Why are the highest-profile issues some of the last issues you should be giving your attention to? Rob provides a framework for making the most of your money, time, and attention.

This is a much longer conversation than usual. I’d like to thank Rob Wiblin and 80,000 hours for offering to cover the extra production costs over our usual shorter conversations. We pay by the minute, and they were happy to chip in to make this conversation more in-depth. You’ll find out why early on in the conversation.

Links mentioned The benefits (and lack of harm) of nicotine Nature.com: Impact of plastic straw ban on oral health advice? Population ethics Population axiology How many lives does a doctor save? New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays

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David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative.

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Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/robert-wiblin-interview/