Working on longtermist causes can be emotionally hard: there are so many terrible problems in the world right now. It’s tempting to suspect people who take longtermism seriously aren’t at all troubled by the terrible harms we see around us today, and just enjoy following abstract maths. But that's not true, even for 80,000 Hours staff.

This time we'll discuss Michelle Hutchinson's post, "Why I find longtermism hard, and what keeps me motivated". She shared her perspective on the conflicting pull she feels to help people now and how she stays motivated to work on something she thinks is important but more speculative. 

As a preparation, please read the post: https://80000hours.org/2021/02/why-i-find-longtermism-hard/