This feels like my life’s work, and it's out today
How the first week has gone
My book is out today globally. I’ve been nervous but also touched by the reception. Here are some highlights, plus other news from this busy busy week.
In case you’re new(!), the idea is that your career is your most important decision, especially for your impact on the world. But most career advice sucks, so millions waste it. They drift into the standard defaults.
I spent the last 15 years of my career researching how to find the best career, and the book sums up everything I’ve learned.
I argue the route to a fulfilling career isn’t to follow your passion, it’s to build valuable skills and apply them to the most pressing problems of our time. The book unpacks exactly how.
We hit number 1 in our category in both Amazon US and UK. (There’s still two more days for sales for to count for NYT 😬)
Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists, said it was one of the only self-help books he’d recommend(!):
“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…research-backed, free of jargon, and pretty funny as well!”
Andy Masley, who has single-handedly brought sanity to the discourse on datacenter resource consumption in the last year, said:
“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.”
My favourite review of all was by Bentham’s Bulldog.
I was especially touched to hear stories of people who the guide has helped in the past. Sneha Revanur, founder of Encode AI, the US’s leading AI youth movement, said:
“My career, and the rebirth of Encode, are entirely downstream of Ben and his team. Couldn’t recommend this book more.”
The CEO of the UK’s leading catastrophic risk think tank, Angus Mercer, said it had helped him find a more impactful career. I even learned that the general manager of the Dwarkesh Podcast, Max Farrens, wouldn’t be in the job without the guide.
Cate Hall, author of You Can Just Do Things, and person with the most insane CV I know, said she wished the book had been around when she graduated to stop her from going into law. Hannah Ritchie from Our World in Data said it’s where she sends people for career advice.
One of the funnest parts of writing the book was working with a real new yorker cartoonist, Natalya Lobanova, to illustrate it. She posted her favourite cartoon on instagram, getting 10x more likes than anything we’ve posted there.
Some of the ideas people have been most interested in so far:
The last few weeks have been intense, and I was also interviewed on the 80,000 Hours podcast about what short AI timelines mean for your career (YouTube).
I was also on The Cognitive Revolution getting into more practical detail about what people can do about AI risk. And released a video essay about the most valuable skills of the future.
There will be an upcoming interview on EconTalk, one of the original great podcasts I’ve listened to for 10+ years, talking about the classic ideas of the book. (Plus a popular interview on Vox.)
Tomorrow, I’ll be doing an AMA on r/IAmA at 8am pacific, 11am eastern and 4pm UK. Check my socials for the link.
If you’d like to help us get even more people tackling the most pressing problems:
There’s still two days left to help us hit the NYT bestseller list – buy a physical copy before midnight 30th May!
We lost hundreds of old Amazon reviews, so our page doesn’t look great. If you’ve read the guide in the past, consider leaving a review.
Thank you again so much!
Ben
Congratulations, and the concept is 100 percent on point.