We’ve Been Blown Away by the Support for Our Book Launch

Sharing our gratitude for the kind words from Cate Hall, Andy Masley, Bentham’s Bulldog, and many others

Publication day is terrifying for an author. A book’s first week of sales determines where it’s placed in stores, how widely it’s distributed, and whether algorithms promote it to others. Many books die in silence before they’ve had a chance to find their audience.

So this week was an incredible rush for our team – especially for Benjamin Todd, who’s spent 15 years researching how to find the best career, culminating in our new book 80,000 Hours. Benjamin has said this book feels like his life’s work.

After all their hard work, it’s been a joy for me to watch the 80k staff celebrate the kind and supportive reviews the book has gotten so far. Our Slack is full of emojis. So I wanted to send one last post to highlight responses that have meant a lot to us and to thank our community for supporting us along the way.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us research and share these ideas over the years. We’re all so grateful to have such a kind and supportive community of people who want to use their careers for good.

Rutger Bregman – “Three Self-Help Books I’d Actually Recommend”

“If you’re worried about wasting your life, read this book. For young graduates who’d like to avoid a soul-crushing career in the Bermuda Triangle of Talent (consulting, finance and corporate law), this book is a lifesaver. It’s the closest thing the field of ambitious do-gooders has to a textbook: research-backed, free of jargon, and pretty funny as well!”

Cate Hall – Philanthropist & Writer (with her own forthcoming book You Can Just Do Things!)

Andy Masley – “80,000 Hours is in my top 5 personal most influential pieces of media”

“The original book is still one of the great holy texts for me, partly because the basic message is so simple but so not acted on almost anywhere: you should actually try to think a lot about planning your career to do good in a really quantitative way. Once you start to pay attention to how many people’s careers basically involve coasting along on the first thing that gave them status, the basic ritual of actually writing down and thinking through what you’re doing looks a lot more important.

I’ve also been pretty excited for more media on how to think about careers that will actually help with the future of AI, because so little good material is actually out there. Expecting this to be great on that too. There’s not a lot of EA media that I unreservedly recommend to everyone, but this book is. I’m pretty pumped to read it.”

Hannah Ritchie – Data Scientist and Author of Not the End of the World

“Quite a lot of young people ask me for career advice (and often with questions that are too difficult to distill to answer in an email). There are also not many good single resources to point them to.

But one organisation that takes this decision very seriously is 80,000 Hours, which offers specific advice on how people should think about doing good with their career. Its co-founder, Benjamin Todd, has just published a book on this, which I think is an excellent place to start.”

Bentham’s Bulldog – “Read This Book”

“If you’re not sure what to do with your career, I recommend reading the book. It provides extremely useful advice about what kind of career you should get, backed by about a decade of high-quality research. Given how little time it takes to read a book compared to the amount of time in your career, reading the book has enormous expected value.”

Sneha Revanur – Founder and President, Encode AI

Max Farrens – General Manager, Dwarkesh Podcast

“I don’t think I’d be at the Dwarkesh Podcast without 80,000 Hours.

A few years ago, I was pursuing a more traditional FAANG path. 80k’s career guide (and some great 1-on-1 coaching) convinced me that the GM role would be more impactful, and that I’d enjoy it way more. Now I’m 1.5 years in… so far, no regrets.

I just shipped the new edition to my little brother (unsolicited... what else are siblings for?)”

Jared Wilhelm – AI and National Security Fellow

“About this time last year I decided to leave the US government after more than two decades. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my career pivot, but a fighter pilot friend in my cubicle at the Pentagon asked me if I’d ever heard of 80,000 Hours. I hadn’t, but when he told me about their mission to help solve some thorny problems in the world, I was intrigued.

Soon I’d used their website to read career reviews, worked with their 1-1 advising team, and read their book. Since then I’ve found my way into the AI Governance & Policy space where I think my interests and skills are aligned tackling some of the world’s most pressing problems.”

Angus Mercer – Chief Executive, Center for Long-Term Resilience

“Congratulations. And as someone who’s benefited a great deal from your thinking about how to have an impactful career - thank you!”

Before the book launched, it was also blurbed by Tim Urban of Wait But Why (“Every college grad should read this”), poker champion and science communicator Liv Boree (“The best book ever written about how to have a fulfilling and impactful career”), author and professor Cal Newport (“This career guide is among the most thoughtful and grounded I’ve seen”) and author of The Alignment Problem Brian Christian (“A lively, readable, thorough guide to one of life’s most consequential decisions”).

We think the new book distills our best advice that has a proven track record of getting people into impactful careers, so we’re really glad it’s reaching a wider audience. We’re so grateful to have an altruistic and thoughtful audience that has taken these ideas and sought meaningful work that improves the lives of others.

You can order the book here.