I'm publishing a book: a ridiculously in-depth guide to finding a fulfilling career in the age of AI

I wrote 80,000 Hours ten years ago because I was frustrated at how terrible career advice can be. Your career is the biggest decision you’ll ever make. But most people make it with shockingly little information.

Today it’s even worse: often still focused on how to enter traditional paths like law and medicine when we’re facing AGI.

To fix that, I’m publishing a fully updated edition with Penguin, which is now available for preorder.

It’s a ridiculously in-depth guide to finding a fulfilling career that does good, now updated for the age of AI, with three new chapters, major edits, new cover, and (most importantly) a new font to turn it into a ‘real’ book. It’s the culmination of 15 years helping people not waste their 80,000 hours.

The biggest changes are about AI. There’s a new chapter on which skills will be most valuable as AI advances, a new chapter on the most pressing AI risks, and updated advice on career capital and job hunting for a world where the job market might soon look very different. Some have joked the book should be renamed 8,000 Hours, because the next five years could be so crucial, but that just means your choice of career matters more than ever.

I’ve also greatly expanded the practical advice, adding a new chapter on how to make career decisions, more on exploration and career planning, and more material for people further into their careers (something I was less qualified to write a decade ago...). I’ve also narrated the audiobook, and we’re working on translations.

I think it’s now the best single entry point into 80,000 Hours’ advice – advice which has already caused thousands of people to change careers. The original version pointed people to AI risk and pandemic prevention years back in 2017, which aged well. People who put that into practice now have leading positions in those fields. But our surveys find 95%+ of college graduates have still never heard of us, which means there’s millions more to reach.

Preorders make a big difference to visibility, giving us more shelf space, journalist reviews, and Amazon algorithm juice. Buying from a physical retailer like Barnes & Noble helps even more, since it counts more towards bestseller lists.

If you’ve ever found our advice useful, preordering a copy (whether for yourself or for someone else) is one of the easiest ways to help the book reach more people – and to help them tackle the biggest problems of our time.