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In this episode I’m speaking with Rob Wiblin from 80,000 hours, an organisation that looks into how people can spend their most precious resource, their time, but more specifically, the time they spend working, to maximise for humanity’s well being. The number 80,000 hours is roughly how long someone spends working in their lifetime, hence the name.
It’s an organisation with its foundation in effective altruism, which is a philosophy and social movement that aims to apply evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to benefit others.
If this is the first time you’ve been exposed to these ideas, i highly recommend you check out their websites and content. I’m sure it will change the way you think about how you navigate the world, and could realistically increase the positive impact you have on the world by orders of magnitude. This mode of thinking has really changed the way i view the world.
As i said at the start, my guest today is Rob Wiblin. Rob is director of research at 80,000 hours and hosts the 80,000 hours podcast. He studied genetics and economics at the Australian National University (ANU) and was named Young Alumnus of the Year in 2015.
He has worked as a research economist in various Australian Government agencies, he was Research Director and then Executive Director at the Centre for Effective Altruism in Oxford and then became Research Director for 80,000 Hours. He and the 80,000 hours crew also know how to throw a great party.
So we hit on quite a few topics in the 40 minutes we had to chat, which included:
Rob's Talk on What Matters Most
We are not worried enough about the next pandemic
Why the longrun future matters more than anything else and what we should do about it
There aren’t too many decisions that we make daily that can have as much of an impact on the world as what we choose to eat.
This podcast has the potential to significantly change the way you spend your time and money. And i’m not being hyperbolic.
