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Soft­ware engineering

TagLast edit: 29 May 2022 18:00 UTC by Leo

Software engineering comprises the entire range of activities used to design and develop software.

Software engineering as a career

80,000 Hours’ in-depth profile rates software engineering a “sometimes recommended” career.[1] The profile finds that a software engineer’s most promising path to impact involves doing direct work on AI safety or in highly impactful organizations, and that the value of this work is likely higher than via earning to give. A career in software engineering can also be a good way to gain career capital.

Further reading

Hilton, Benjamin (2022) Software engineering, 80,000 Hours, February 4.

Jones, Andy (2021) AI safety needs great engineers, AI Alignment Forum, November 23.

Related entries

artificial intelligence | data science | engineering | public interest technology | SparkWave

  1. ^

    Hilton, Benjamin (2022) Software engineering, 80,000 Hours, February 4.

Soft­ware en­g­ineer­ing—Ca­reer review

Benjamin Hilton8 Feb 2022 6:11 UTC
92 points
19 comments8 min readEA link
(80000hours.org)

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Yonatan Cale19 Jun 2022 9:58 UTC
58 points
14 comments11 min readEA link

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108 points
31 comments9 min readEA link

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109 points
40 comments4 min readEA link

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Andy Jones23 Nov 2021 21:03 UTC
96 points
13 comments4 min readEA link

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103 points
14 comments7 min readEA link

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38 points
3 comments6 min readEA link

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18 points
7 comments4 min readEA link

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99 points
19 comments11 min readEA link

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65 points
2 comments1 min readEA link
(www.lesswrong.com)

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50 points
13 comments3 min readEA link

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31 points
46 comments1 min readEA link

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17 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

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51 points
7 comments3 min readEA link

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47 points
1 comment1 min readEA link

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62 points
1 comment5 min readEA link

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8 points
2 comments3 min readEA link

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18 points
7 comments1 min readEA link

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38 points
52 comments1 min readEA link

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111 points
19 comments5 min readEA link

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13 points
36 comments1 min readEA link

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37 points
0 comments2 min readEA link

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24 points
45 comments1 min readEA link

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59 points
13 comments14 min readEA link

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108 points
2 comments6 min readEA link

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SentientBunny1126 Nov 2021 4:49 UTC
23 points
15 comments2 min readEA link

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81 points
8 comments1 min readEA link
(github.com)

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37 points
11 comments1 min readEA link

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45 points
1 comment6 min readEA link

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AdamGleave6 Jul 2022 2:00 UTC
74 points
3 comments4 min readEA link

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Anusha Choudhury1 Aug 2021 19:05 UTC
13 points
4 comments1 min readEA link

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Ozzie Gooen19 Nov 2021 15:04 UTC
46 points
7 comments4 min readEA link

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Paul_Lang22 Feb 2022 0:42 UTC
25 points
12 comments3 min readEA link

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Sebastian Becker30 Apr 2022 16:25 UTC
99 points
20 comments3 min readEA link

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Yonatan Cale25 Mar 2022 13:28 UTC
39 points
15 comments9 min readEA link

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16 points
13 comments7 min readEA link

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86 points
12 comments2 min readEA link

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29 points
2 comments3 min readEA link

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32 points
18 comments3 min readEA link

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19 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

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JP Addison12 Mar 2021 22:54 UTC
53 points
56 comments1 min readEA link

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45 points
13 comments6 min readEA link

[Question] Who’s build­ing Soft­ware Prod­ucts?

defun4 Dec 2022 12:42 UTC
10 points
7 comments1 min readEA link

Con­ver­sa­tion on fore­cast­ing with Vaniver and Ozzie Gooen

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38 points
4 comments32 min readEA link

Our plan to share “PR FAQs” for new Fo­rum features

Ben_West29 Jul 2021 4:10 UTC
47 points
2 comments3 min readEA link

Si­mul­ta­neous Shortage and Oversupply

Jeff Kaufman26 Jan 2019 19:35 UTC
41 points
10 comments2 min readEA link

My cur­rent im­pres­sions on ca­reer choice for longtermists

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403 points
35 comments26 min readEA link

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47 points
9 comments1 min readEA link

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6 points
15 comments1 min readEA link
(www.whitehatstoic.com)

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Hmash11 Sep 2021 22:05 UTC
194 points
11 comments4 min readEA link

[Question] What are some soft­ware de­vel­op­ment needs in EA causes?

BrownHairedEevee6 Mar 2020 5:25 UTC
10 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

Have your com­mu­nity no­tified of new EA Jobs

SamNolan21 Dec 2021 5:54 UTC
29 points
1 comment1 min readEA link

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Ozzie Gooen3 Aug 2022 0:23 UTC
147 points
11 comments7 min readEA link

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80000_Hours16 Jan 2023 12:45 UTC
54 points
10 comments11 min readEA link
(80000hours.org)

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Lizka30 Jan 2023 18:32 UTC
286 points
48 comments3 min readEA link

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Markus Amalthea Magnuson17 Feb 2022 23:33 UTC
24 points
3 comments5 min readEA link

[Question] Con­cerns about AI safety ca­reer change

mmKALLL13 Jan 2023 20:52 UTC
44 points
15 comments4 min readEA link

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melissasamworth21 Sep 2022 20:39 UTC
9 points
3 comments1 min readEA link

Would you pur­sue soft­ware en­g­ineer­ing as a ca­reer to­day?

justaperson18 Mar 2023 3:33 UTC
6 points
13 comments3 min readEA link

How Open Source Ma­chine Learn­ing Soft­ware Shapes AI

Max Langenkamp28 Sep 2022 17:49 UTC
11 points
3 comments14 min readEA link
(maxlangenkamp.me)

Mak­ing a Crow­dac­tion website

Bob Jacobs19 Aug 2020 15:18 UTC
14 points
2 comments5 min readEA link

Help me to un­der­stand AI al­ign­ment!

britomart18 Jan 2023 9:13 UTC
3 points
11 comments1 min readEA link

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patio119 Dec 2022 20:13 UTC
424 points
8 comments7 min readEA link

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51 points
5 comments2 min readEA link

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57 points
27 comments3 min readEA link

Les­sons Learned from EA Hackathon fol­low­ing EAGxBerkeley

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35 points
9 comments3 min readEA link

Which AI Safety Org to Join?

Yonatan Cale11 Oct 2022 19:42 UTC
15 points
21 comments1 min readEA link

[Question] What are the most rele­vant sub­do­mains of soft­ware for biose­cu­rity?

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21 points
6 comments1 min readEA link

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AndreFerretti31 Jan 2023 21:37 UTC
11 points
6 comments1 min readEA link

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51 points
8 comments1 min readEA link

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17 points
5 comments5 min readEA link

I’m Offer­ing Free Men­tor­ship for Early Ca­reer Soft­ware Engineers

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41 points
1 comment1 min readEA link

[job] Me­tac­u­lus has new soft­ware roles

dschwarz7 Nov 2022 21:19 UTC
9 points
0 comments1 min readEA link
(apply.workable.com)

Offer­ing FAANG-style mock interviews

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34 points
10 comments1 min readEA link

I’m Offer­ing Free Eng­ineer­ing and Con­sul­ta­tion for EA Aligned Projects

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48 points
4 comments2 min readEA link

Ei­genKarma: trust at scale

Henrik Karlsson8 Feb 2023 18:58 UTC
101 points
25 comments5 min readEA link

AGI with feelings

Nicolai Meberg7 Dec 2022 16:00 UTC
−13 points
0 comments1 min readEA link
(twitter.com)

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Sam Watts29 Sep 2022 14:09 UTC
2 points
0 comments1 min readEA link

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47 points
2 comments2 min readEA link

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Conor McGurk30 Sep 2022 16:03 UTC
63 points
5 comments8 min readEA link

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Jobst Heitzig (vodle.it)31 Oct 2022 0:37 UTC
24 points
8 comments1 min readEA link

[Question] Soft­ware Eng­ineer: what to do with 3 days of vol­un­teer­ing?

Louis Mackenzie-Smith21 Sep 2022 15:37 UTC
1 point
5 comments1 min readEA link

How much could a SWE at top com­pa­nies donate through­out their 20-year ca­reer?

SmallCat8 Aug 2022 14:09 UTC
9 points
0 comments2 min readEA link

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Jamie Bernardi26 Aug 2022 15:43 UTC
39 points
4 comments5 min readEA link

[Question] Should I work for a cli­mate tech com­pany owned by Shell?

Adelaida Creosteanu10 Jan 2023 16:16 UTC
19 points
8 comments1 min readEA link

ea.do­mains—Do­mains Free to a Good Home

plex12 Jan 2023 13:32 UTC
48 points
8 comments4 min readEA link

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Sam Watts22 Nov 2022 20:52 UTC
1 point
0 comments1 min readEA link

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22 points
0 comments7 min readEA link

An­nounc­ing the SPT Model Web App for AI Governance

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36 points
0 comments3 min readEA link

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Yonatan Cale25 Nov 2021 14:52 UTC
43 points
16 comments5 min readEA link

Give Me Ca­reer Advice

Yonatan Cale9 Nov 2021 21:52 UTC
29 points
16 comments3 min readEA link

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6 points
8 comments1 min readEA link

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15 points
2 comments1 min readEA link