Serendipity, weird bets, & cold emails that actually work: Career advice from 16 former guests

Serendipity, weird bets, & cold emails that actually work: Career advice from 16 former guests

How do you navigate a career path when the future of work is uncertain? How important is mentorship versus immediate impact? Is it better to focus on your strengths or on the world’s most pressing problems? Should you specialise deeply or develop a unique combination of skills?

From embracing failure to finding unlikely allies, we bring you 16 diverse perspectives from past guests who’ve found unconventional paths to impact and helped others do the same.

Links to learn more and full transcript.

Chapters:

  • Cold open (00:00:00)
  • Luisa's intro (00:01:04)
  • Holden Karnofsky on just kicking ass at whatever (00:02:53)
  • Jeff Sebo on what improv comedy can teach us about doing good in the world (00:12:23)
  • Dean Spears on being open to randomness and serendipity (00:19:26)
  • Michael Webb on how to think about career planning given the rapid developments in AI (00:21:17)
  • Michelle Hutchinson on finding what motivates you and reaching out to people for help (00:41:10)
  • Benjamin Todd on figuring out if a career path is a good fit for you (00:46:03)
  • Chris Olah on the value of unusual combinations of skills (00:50:23)
  • Holden Karnofsky on deciding which weird ideas are worth betting on (00:58:03)
  • Karen Levy on travelling to learn about yourself (01:03:10)
  • Leah Garcés on finding common ground with unlikely allies (01:06:53)
  • Spencer Greenberg on recognising toxic people who could derail your career and life (01:13:34)
  • Holden Karnofsky on the many jobs that can help with AI (01:23:13)
  • Danny Hernandez on using world events to trigger you to work on something else (01:30:46)
  • Sarah Eustis-Guthrie on exploring and pivoting in careers (01:33:07)
  • Benjamin Todd on making tough career decisions (01:38:36)
  • Hannah Ritchie on being selective when following others’ advice (01:44:22)
  • Alex Lawsen on getting good mentorship (01:47:25)
  • Chris Olah on cold emailing that actually works (01:54:49)
  • Pardis Sabeti on prioritising physical health to do your best work (01:58:34)
  • Chris Olah on developing good taste and technique as a researcher (02:04:39)
  • Benjamin Todd on why it’s so important to apply to loads of jobs (02:09:52)
  • Varsha Venugopal on embracing uncomfortable situations and celebrating failures (02:14:25)
  • Luisa's outro (02:17:43)

Audio engineering: Ben Cordell, Milo McGuire, Simon Monsour, and Dominic Armstrong
Content editing: Katy Moore and Milo McGuire
Transcriptions and web: Katy Moore

Jaksot(332)

#59 Classic episode - Cass Sunstein on how change happens, and why it's so often abrupt & unpredictable

#59 Classic episode - Cass Sunstein on how change happens, and why it's so often abrupt & unpredictable

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in June 2019. It can often feel hopeless to be an activist seeking social change on an obscure issue where most people seem opposed or at best indiff...

27 Joulu 20211h 43min

#119 – Andrew Yang on our very long-term future, and other topics most politicians won’t touch

#119 – Andrew Yang on our very long-term future, and other topics most politicians won’t touch

Andrew Yang — past presidential candidate, founder of the Forward Party, and leader of the 'Yang Gang' — is kind of a big deal, but is particularly popular among listeners to The 80,000 Hours Podcast....

20 Joulu 20211h 25min

#118 – Jaime Yassif on safeguarding bioscience to prevent catastrophic lab accidents and bioweapons development

#118 – Jaime Yassif on safeguarding bioscience to prevent catastrophic lab accidents and bioweapons development

If a rich country were really committed to pursuing an active biological weapons program, there’s not much we could do to stop them. With enough money and persistence, they’d be able to buy equipment,...

13 Joulu 20212h 15min

#117 – David Denkenberger on using paper mills and seaweed to feed everyone in a catastrophe, ft Sahil Shah

#117 – David Denkenberger on using paper mills and seaweed to feed everyone in a catastrophe, ft Sahil Shah

If there's a nuclear war followed by nuclear winter, and the sun is blocked out for years, most of us are going to starve, right? Well, currently, probably we would, because humanity hasn't done much ...

29 Marras 20213h 8min

#116 – Luisa Rodriguez on why global catastrophes seem unlikely to kill us all

#116 – Luisa Rodriguez on why global catastrophes seem unlikely to kill us all

If modern human civilisation collapsed — as a result of nuclear war, severe climate change, or a much worse pandemic than COVID-19 — billions of people might die.That's terrible enough to contemplate....

19 Marras 20213h 45min

#115 – David Wallace on the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics and its implications

#115 – David Wallace on the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics and its implications

Quantum mechanics — our best theory of atoms, molecules, and the subatomic particles that make them up — underpins most of modern physics. But there are varying interpretations of what it means, all o...

12 Marras 20213h 9min

#114 – Maha Rehman on working with governments to rapidly deliver masks to millions of people

#114 – Maha Rehman on working with governments to rapidly deliver masks to millions of people

It’s hard to believe, but until recently there had never been a large field trial that addressed these simple and obvious questions:1. When ordinary people wear face masks, does it actually reduce the...

22 Loka 20211h 42min

We just put up a new compilation of ten core episodes of the show

We just put up a new compilation of ten core episodes of the show

We recently launched a new podcast feed that might be useful to you and people you know. It's called Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems, and it's a collection of ten top episodes of this show, se...

20 Loka 20213min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
psykopodiaa-podcast
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
adhd-podi
psykologia
rss-tietoinen-yhteys-podcast-2
rss-valo-minussa-2
rss-rahamania
rss-niinku-asia-on
kesken
rss-liian-kuuma-peruna
rss-arkea-ja-aurinkoa-podcast-espanjasta
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi
rahapuhetta
dear-ladies
rss-uskonto-on-tylsaa
rss-narsisti
rss-hereilla
koodikahvit
aamukahvilla