80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good

by Benjamin Todd

Rather, you can develop passion while doing work that you will find enjoyable and meaningful. The key is to get good at something that helps other people.

Helping others isn’t the only route to a meaningful career, but it’s widely accepted by researchers that it’s one of the most powerful.

Work you’re good at, Work that helps others, Engaging work that lets you enter a state of flow (freedom, variety, clear tasks, feedback), Supportive colleagues, No major negatives like long hours or unfair pay, and Work that fits your personal life.

When people talk about “positive impact”, “the good you do” or the “difference you make”, what does it actually mean? Ultimately this is a philosophical question, but here’s our answer: social impact. We define it as: The number of people whose lives you improve, and how much you improve them.

To have a truly fulfilling life, we need to turn outwards rather than inwards. Rather than asking, “what would most make me passionate?”, ask “how can I best contribute to the world?”.