Increase investment in research and in improving the content substantively
Consider releasing an updated version of our out-of-date career guide (which continues to be popular with our audience)
Take low-hanging fruit in a range of other areas — e.g. updating key articles to be more compelling and to better reflect our current views.
I would be really excited for the web team to spend time revamping the 2017 career guide (I personally found it very useful). From the 2022 user survey (which I recommend reading) :
The 2017 career guide is still frequently influential for people who make plan changes — even those who found 80,000 Hours after the 2017 career guide was deprioritised in April 2019. The career guide was mentioned as influential by over 1⁄4 of CPBCs who found 80,000 Hours in 2021-2022. It was also more likely to be mentioned by plan changes that seemed more impressive. We are now considering releasing an updated version of this career guide.
My hypothesis on why the guide is useful: It teaches skills and approaches, rather than object level views. It gives people tools to compare between options, and encourages people to be more proactive and ambitious in achieving those goals. I think the guide is one of the few complete / comprehensive resources that embodies “EA/EA thinking as a practically useful framework for making decisions about your life”. I think we could do a lot more in this space.
Thanks Vaidehi—agree! I think another key part of why it’s been useful is that it’s just really readable/interesting—even for people who aren’t already invested in the ideas.
(from the full report)
I would be really excited for the web team to spend time revamping the 2017 career guide (I personally found it very useful). From the 2022 user survey (which I recommend reading) :
My hypothesis on why the guide is useful: It teaches skills and approaches, rather than object level views. It gives people tools to compare between options, and encourages people to be more proactive and ambitious in achieving those goals. I think the guide is one of the few complete / comprehensive resources that embodies “EA/EA thinking as a practically useful framework for making decisions about your life”. I think we could do a lot more in this space.
Thanks Vaidehi—agree! I think another key part of why it’s been useful is that it’s just really readable/interesting—even for people who aren’t already invested in the ideas.