Lots of new content released to the site

By · Published September 14th, 2014

We’ve recently expanded our research page into a series of ten, supported by sixteen career profiles. In total, we’ve released around 30,000 words of new content.

We provide an overview of everything on the getting started page.

After that, the three most important pages are:

  1. Top careers: Lists the most promising careers from among the careers we’ve investigated so far.
  2. How to choose: A step-by-step process to make your next career decision.
  3. Our framework: A checklist of criteria to use to compare your individual options in terms of how much difference you can make.

Some other important pages include:

  • Top strategies: A list of strategies you can take to make a difference (skill build, experiment with your options, do research, earning to give, advocacy, work at effective organisations, entrepreneurship).
  • Cause selection: A framework for comparing causes, and our list of top causes.
  • Personal fit: A step-by-step process for finding a career that fits, and our views on ‘do what you’re passionate about’.
  • Job satisfaction: How to assess jobs in terms of how satisfying you’re likely to find them.

Many of our views on these topics have changed since we last wrote about them. I’ll be going through some of the changes on the blog over the next couple of weeks.

On the getting started page, we also tried to sum up (i) how we’re different and (ii) our key findings so far.

We summed up our key findings with a list of common mistakes we think people make:

  • Considering an overly narrow range of options and criteria. This is the result of many biases and is made worse by the common, but flawed, advice to “do what you’re passionate about”. It’s possible to become good at and passionate about many different promising paths. We have lists of options, strategies and factors to compare careers on to help you avoid this pitfall. Rather than trying to work out what you’re passionate about, we think it’s more productive early in your career to focus on exploring your options in high-potential areas and building valuable skills.
  • Not considering working in private sector and focusing too much on the social sector. Although you can make a big difference in the social sector, you can also make a big difference through research, advocating for important ideas and building positive private sector organisations. More. We also believe some people can make more difference by taking a high-earning career and donating the money to effective organisations – earning to give – than by working directly in the social sector. In addition, the private sector contains promising opportunities to build skills, putting you in a better position to make a difference in the long-run.
  • Trying to make a difference too soon. At the start of your career, it’s normally more important to learn about your options and build your skills, connections and credentials – putting yourself in a better position to make a difference later – than have a big immediate impact (though it’s better if you can do both!). More.
  • Too much introspection, and not enough testing. It’s hard to know which careers will suit you best just by thinking about it. The best way to to learn is often just to try them out. Introspection can also lead you down the wrong path – it’s important to be aware of your strengths and values, but it’s also important to think about what the world most needs.
  • Not comparing causes. Some social problems are bigger, more tractable and more neglected than others. So it’s important to carefully choose the causes you’ll focus on, and this means more than just thinking about what you’re most passionate about. More.

And we listed some of the career paths we’ve discovered so far that we think more people should consider:

We’re still trying to work out whether we should also include content on our ‘big ideas’ or underlying philosophy, and how to incorporate examples of real people on the page.

What do you think are the key ideas of 80,000 Hours? What are the first things we should say to someone first arriving on the site?