Hello,
I work in nature conservation. I enjoy the job well enough as I like being outside and using my body, and rationally I know that what I am doing is good for the world. However, nothing occupies my mind and heart more than big data’s threat on privacy, the seemingly unmitigated effect that certain technologies are having on children’s mental health and development, and surveillance capitalism’s exploitation of autonomy and dignity.
The impulse to do something about the latter (admittedly a broad spectrum) keeps me up at night, even though I know that I am spending my days doing something that is good for the world, and potentially more effective than a role I could re-train for in some kind of tech policy job. Like I said, I enjoy my current job, and I do find it fulfilling (at least rationally so), but, strangely, combatting the climate crisis does not light a fire in me the way combating technological disruption does.
So my question is, have any of you grappled with this dilemma before? And if so what conclusions did you come to? Is re-training to a role more suited to my moral temperament worthwhile, or altruistically ineffective? I feel as though instinct and moral anxiety have a place at the table when it comes to decision making, but I am also cautious of being irrational. Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading.
I have battled with cause prioritization for years. I took a hard turn early in my career that set me back years. I remember it being emotionally difficult to be in the process of a potential large career change, even more difficult to lock in the decision. Hopefully I can say something useful.
First of all, emotion drive us. It’s a force multiplier of all other factors boiling into the amount of impact you can have. Think of all other parameters except for your drive as being a lever you can pull, and your drive is the force you can put on the lever. What will happen if your drive (applied force) is small vs large?
There are many parameters going into the equation of how much impact you can have in a field, but to mention a few, your experience in the field / track-record, your reputation and strength of your network, more general skills and knowledge, and, of course, your drive to get stuff done. I would think about what drives you the most of:
Raw impact, independent of cause area (as partially defined by your very core assumptions / values).
Cause area (your “flavor” / personal preference)
Re-training is a sour apple, for sure, but I wouldn’t think too much about that at this (exploration?) phase—mapping over one fields system of thinking into new domains is often very fruitful in serendipitous ways (I don’t know the effect of this in your particular case, but it is generally so).
And I wouldn’t think about this as being irrational, at all—emotion spurs action. How we are driven to make the world a better place shouldn’t be discounted.
If you really are burning for a specific cause, then I would definitely take that as a strong signal that this question should be further investigated, even in case it isn’t seen effective, altruistic or scores high on the ITN framework.
Thank you very much for this comment. I’ve found it incredibly useful. Particularly the lever + drive metaphor. I will further investigate as per your advice. I’ve found some roles that I believe I have an aptitude for, and I am reaching out to those already in the roles in the hopes of getting a more crystallised vision to potentially work towards.