I received this book for free… Still can’t really believe it, but there are some amazing initiatives in this world alright.
All this amazing advice.. For free!
What the hell.
The book is great.
This is the kind of book that I can’t easily condense more, that I can’t really take insight from and just give it away.. Because it is one of the first books I have ever read that already is dense with meaning. So you should read it if you find these notions interesting.
You can feel the research and time behind each chapter, question, phrase.
Still, some ideas surprise me more than others, and in a right way namely:
- the more power you have, the more power to do good… or screw up. Still, if you put yourself in a position of power in a place that has a lot of impact and do great… Great! Leverage. But sometimes we want to do good and end up doing bad.
- you don’t have to be a doctor to be successful in having great impact. Not all of the paths are rewarding or that well seen by society either.
- communicating is very crucial. Organisations can make sense but you need to wonder what their true bottlenecks are, often it’s just… money.
- If you choose to donate, you can choose what you support and have real impact. I sometimes feel like it gets lost in the sea of the world… But it doesn’t. Every action we take has impact. God
- stemming from this, they talk about some systems you can use to make sure you’re giving to places that matter, and in the right way for you.
- focus on the things that match your personality, but also look into the problems that have the least amount of effort put into them compared to their importance. Low hanging fruits. Coming up with a significant help will be much more likely if less people focused on it.
They give a lot of examples which makes these seem much more tengible and allows true understanding beyond just reading a few lines.
I would like to point out, you don’t have to take the option that maximises everything, there is more to life than that. Still, it’s interesting to read this to have a better idea of how to estimate impact and not go on a path based on the wrong estimations or preconceptions. You can feel the years of research that went into this book.
How to choose the right job:
- ask yourself if you’d take it if you couldn’t speak to anyone about it (to see if you’re doing it for prestige)
- phd and stuff can be an advanced form of procrastination and not deciding what to do
- identify the skills most useful for the role, the best way to acquire them (for both, talk to people working in the field)
- some networking and focused training/reading will get you a bunch of jobs already, then you need a way to demonstrate your skills, which depends on the field also
- you will need some time to get impactful no matter what job you pick, most people peak in their 50s though it depends on the job etc and how much it depends on how well connected you are, for instance, for this reason it does make sense to start with something else than a non profit, but for the financial independence you’ll gain but also the skills.
- what problems do you actually think are most pressing? what are you doing about them? what are others doing about them?
tools of use referenced:
- https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ on how much impact you can have and taking the pledge to have an impact on the world in this way… There is old wisdom from the babylonians that you can save 10% of your money to fructify it and you won’t feel it. This is one way to invest.
- https://www.givewell.org/ if you want to know how to get the most out of your bucks
So if this is AI for me (I think), what’s the best way to put my huge potential in practice?
My best skill lies in understand the world and giving that understanding away to help direct others, but how to scale this? substack lol? Depends who I’m targeting with this knowledge… What knowledge even? How to work in the most optimal way? Make another way of approaching AI with others? The education work is quite impactful I believe.
I like what they say about using existing AI in areas of impact where it hasn’t been brought much yet, or working more on safety AI I think AI is the most pressing issue of our time has my full reasoning, in part inspired from this book.
Interesting point they make about going to a small vs big company, small seems to have more potential for the future now with AI automating white collar jobs, but you need to choose the right one because they often have stability issues, and this needs to fit your profile as it will be harder, and also can be hard to convince companies to hire you afterwards. I think this depends on the strategy you use, because if you meet people in person rather than just sending a CV they should feel your better skills compared to being a good “cog in the machine” - which is essentially what AI already is.
One thing I can say to critique this book is that it should not be taken as a bible of what job to take but rather a source of inspiration, of things to think against. For instance they are very focused on the changes that will be brought by AI and reading this book it feels like that’s the only job option, but I feel like we’ll develop more need for people able to re-organize society and dynamize others, as well as entertainers of different forms. Basically allowing others to adapt to AI and such rather than committing that deep into it ourselves, having a step back, maybe aiming to be in the government and help them with the hard transition. It’s especially a problem with governments with How money works, currently at least.
It is absolutely great what they say: if you notice something wrong which you can actually act on in the next 3-5 years and build career credibility from, or know a good team to join and you can afford to, go ahead!
“When you’re going to change the world, don’t ask for permission”- Arcane, though this quote is debatable in some contexts. I’m going to assume your idea has the right one.
Surprising what they say that most people don’t know how to choose the right job even lol.
Not that surprising, however, but that means most of us are trying things randomly like lost souls in the woods or just meditating on the ground then having no better idea…
Gut intuition is something you need to train, but we seldom have the opportunity to do so, all of this in an ever changing environment. And career tests aren’t that useful either.
So just talk to people in the field instead. Try a bunch of stuff. Raygun OS
We often don’t even know what people with certain jobs do, and focus on things like reputation instead, which is not the day to day reality.
It’s okay to try multiple things before settling, and using different strategies to learn what it looks like.
For freelancing I like this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20JT-wIwTlw
The most typical mistake related to deciding about a job or career path in general is to not be looking for enough options to compare, or to not use the right metrics for comparing them (whatever the right metrics are for you).
Something they don’t talk about in the book (yet) is that you can also find a unique way of doing your job. Some people doing 100x as others is not from thin air, it is often luck yes but for instance the doctor element which they focus on a lot you could be a doctor who fills a gap in the system because you found interesting insights into it (hopefully you did) important