80,000 Hours is a nonprofit organization that helps individuals select high-impact careers. It conducts research on pressing social problems and provides one-on-one advice on the basis of this research.

History

80,000 Hours was founded in July 2011 by Ben Todd and William MacAskill. The organization was called High Impact Careers for a year or so before adopting its current name.^[1]^[2] In its early years, 80,000 Hours placed great emphasis on earning to give; since around 2015, the organization has de-emphasized this career path in favor of direct work, especially work in research, advocacy, and policy.^[3]

Approach

At the core of 80,000 Hours' rankings and recommendations are two main "frameworks": a problem framework, which ranks problems in terms of importance, tractability and neglectedness, and a career framework, which recommends careers based primarily on career capital, role impact, and supportive conditions, with personal fit as a common fourth factor in both frameworks.

Funding

As of July 2022, 80,000 Hours has received over $9.8 million in funding from Open Philanthropy,^[4] over 1.1 million from Effective Altruism Funds,^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12] and nearly $300,000 from the Survival and Flourishing Fund.^[13]^[14]

Further reading

80,000 Hours (2014) About us, 80,000 Hours, August (updated July 2021).

Todd, Benjamin (2015), '80,000 Hours', in Ryan Carey (ed.), The Effective Altruism Handbook, 1st ed., Oxford: The Centre for Effective Altruism, pp. 120-124

Todd, Benjamin (2016) 80,000 Hours: Find a Fulfilling Career That Does Good, Oxford: Centre for Effective Altruism.

External links

80,000 Hours. Official website.

80,000 Hours. Effective Altruism Forum account.

Apply for a job.

Donate to 80,000 Hours.

Related entries

80,000 Hours Podcast | career advising | career choice | career framework | problem framework

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MacAskill, William (2014) The history of the term “effective altruism”, Effective Altruism Forum, March 10.
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Kaufman, Jeff (2015) Giving vs doing, Jeff Kaufman’s Blog, November 29.
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MacAskill, William (2015) 80,000 Hours thinks that only a small proportion of people should earn to give long term, 80,000 Hours, July 6.
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Open Philanthropy (2022) Grants database: 80,000 Hours, Open Philanthropy.
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Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (2018) July 2018: EA Meta Fund grants, Effective Altruism Funds, July.
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Long-Term Future Fund (2018) July 2018: Long-Term Future Fund grants, Effective Altruism Funds, July.
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Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (2018) November 2018: EA Meta Fund grants, Effective Altruism Funds, November.
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Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (2019) March 2019: EA Meta Fund grants, Effective Altruism Funds, March.
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Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (2019) July 2019: EA Meta Fund grants, Effective Altruism Funds, July.
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Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (2020) March 2020: EA Meta Fund Grants, Effective Altruism Funds, March.
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Long-Term Future Fund (2020) April 2020: Long-Term Future Fund grants and recommendations, Effective Altruism Funds, April.
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Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (2020) July 2020: EA Meta Fund grants, Effective Altruism Funds, July.
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Survival and Flourishing Fund (2018) SFF-2019-Q4 S-process recommendations announcement, Survival and Flourishing Fund.
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Survival and Flourishing Fund (2019) SFF-2020-H1 S-process recommendations announcement, Survival and Flourishing Fund.