Release date: February 4th, 2019

Rob Wiblin

If you want to do as much good as possible with your career, what problems should you work on, and what jobs should you consider? This episode features Rob Wiblin, director of research for effective altruist organization 80,000 Hours, and the host of the 80,000 Hours podcast.

Julia and Rob discuss how the career advice 80,000 Hours gives has changed over the years, and the biggest misconceptions about their views. Their conversation covers topics like:

Should everyone try to get a job in finance and donate their income?

The case for working to reduce global catastrophic risks

Why reducing risk is a better way to help the future than increasing economic growth

What percentage of the world should ideally follow 80,000 Hours advice?

Links

Rob's Personal Page

Rob's Podcast: "80,000 Hours"

Episode #45 – Prof. Tyler Cowen's stubborn attachments to maximising economic growth, making civilization more stable and respecting human rights

Episode #10 – Dr. Nick Beckstead on how to spend billions of dollars preventing human extinction

Episode #29 – Dr. Anders Sandberg on three new resolutions for the Fermi Paradox and how to easily colonise the universe

Episode #6 – Dr. Toby Ord on why the long-term future matters more than anything else and what to do about it

Episode #15 – Prof. Tetlock on how chimps beat Berkeley undergrads and when it’s wise to defer to the wise

"Making Sense of Long-Term Indirect Effects" by Rob Wiblin

"Broad versus narrow approaches to shaping the long-term future" by Nick Beckstead

Calculator for whether it’s better to speed up or slow down growth: "Differential technological development: Some early thinking"

"On the Overwhelming Importance of Shaping the Far Future" by Nicholas Beckstead

"Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States" by James C. Scott

"Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?" by Graham Allison

"Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck" by Patrick Collison and Michael Nielsen

"Why despite global progress, humanity is probably facing its most dangerous time ever" by Benjamin Todd

"Presenting the long-term value thesis" by Benjamin Todd

"The Aestheticising Vice," Paul Seabright's review of Seeing Like a State, by James Scott

Edited by Brent Silk

Music by Miracles of Modern Science

Full Transcripts