They can keep their old branding if they just put an asterisk after "hours" and explain that 80,000 Hours* now refers to human-worker-hour-equivalent efforts spent on highly-effective cause areas (aka "effective compute"), not necessarily literal human labor hours.
I think this might be actually a good idea, to remind people how fast AGI might arrive
Downvoted as I don't think this type of content should be tolerated on the EA Forum. When I click on posts on April 1 (which coincidentally is my birthday), I expect to leave after a 'ha ha funny', not a 'ha ha, this is fine, oh wait, no it's not, someone please help me deal with my now increased existential dread'
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Yours sincerely,
Mitchell (is unfortunately not) Laugh(l)ing
Happy birthday Mitchell! Sorry about the existential dread. I promise the next 10,000 hours include cake!
I know this was published on April 1, but a few thoughts nevertheless - if 80k reflects a 9-5 in the traditional sense, perhaps they/we would need an incremental downward rebrand. First, perhaps in line with a 4-day work week, etc. However, if 80k is about a personal mission and purpose, automation should free up more time for what matters, so office hours should not matter.
That is why, I am not sure I agree with the "if we are lucky" part. I see it the other way round :)
I say this with deep love for 80k and mild existential dread.
I love 80,000 Hours. One of the most useful resources in the effective altruism ecosystem. Their core premise is simple and compelling: you have roughly 80,000 hours in your career, so spend them wisely.
But I've been doing some math, and I think they might need a rebrand.
See, 80,000 Hours increasingly (and rightly!) recommends AI safety and AI governance careers. Their top career paths are dominated by AI-related roles. Which makes a lot of sense... until you think about the implication.
If the AI safety community is right that transformative AI could arrive in the next 5 to 15 years, and if that AI is capable enough to automate most of the work humans currently do, then we don't have 80,000 hours. We might have, what, 10,000? Maybe 15,000 if we're lucky? [1]
The very careers 80k recommends are built on the premise that those careers won't exist for very long.
This isn't a criticism. It's a compliment! It means the advice is working. They've correctly identified the most important problem and pointed people at it. It's just that solving the problem also dissolves the brand.
What the rebrand could look like:
New tagline options:
I joke, but for a lot of people these timelines are genuinely scary. I feel it too. I spend a lot of my time wondering what happens to our movement's work when AI reshapes everything, and the answer is: I don't know.
What I do know is that 80,000 Hours has helped thousands of people find meaningful work, including me. If it turns out we only get 10,000 hours, I'd rather spend them on something that matters. And that's basically their whole pitch.
Now get back to work. You're on the clock!
*10,000 hours assumes roughly 5 years at full-time work before AI eats your job, which is aggressive but consistent with what several AI lab CEOs are publicly saying. If the Metaculus crowd median is right, you might get 15,000. Either way, the brand could use a refresh.
"Hours of work left" countdown on the homepage has to happen.
Good luck getting their podcasts down under 10 hours though ;).