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80,000 Hours
  • Published: 2 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529957570
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Press
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $40.00

80,000 Hours

How to Have a Fulfilling Career That Does Good

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
2 June 2026
EBook
28 May 2026
Audiobook
28 May 2026
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'A ridiculously in-depth guide about how to find that perfect career for you.' Dr Ali Abdaal

You have about 80,000 hours in your career: 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 40 years. This means your choice of career is the most important decision you’ll ever make.

Choose well, and you can have a more rewarding, interesting life, and also help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. Choose poorly, and you could waste decades.

So what should you do? Most advice is based on no research, instead offering (misleading) platitudes like ‘follow your passion’. It’s surprisingly out of date, focusing on traditional paths rather than those most likely to thrive in an age of AI. And if you want to help others, the advice is even more simplistic: telling you to choose careers like nurse or doctor, when there are paths in which almost anyone can save more lives. In fact, some careers have hundreds of times more impact than others, but most of us have no idea which ones.

Benjamin Todd is the founder of 80,000 Hours, a non-profit that’s spent over ten years researching how to have a meaningful and impactful career. Here he introduces a tried-and-tested toolkit framework that has already led thousands of people to change their path. It covers:

  • What really makes for a dream job, and why finding it probably doesn’t involve ‘following your passion’.
  • How to identify which global problems are most pressing, and why they might involve AI as much as climate change.
  • Which roles are likely to be automated, and how to ensure yours isn’t among them.
It’s also full of practical tips and tools. You’ll come away with a plan to use your 80,000 hours in a way that’s rewarding and fulfils your potential to make a difference.

'A ridiculously in-depth guide about how to find that perfect career for you.' Ali Abdaal, author of Feel-Good Productivity

'Based on evidence and good sense, not platitudes.' Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of our Nature
  • Published: 2 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529957570
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Press
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $40.00
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About the author

Benjamin Todd

Benjamin Todd is the co-founder and president of 80,000 Hours. He first became interested in the failings of mainstream career guidance as a student when trying to figure out what to do with his own career. This led him to start 80,000 Hours, a non-profit focused on helping people find careers that make the world better. Today, 80,000 Hours is one of the world’s most trusted sources of career advice – its website receives 2 million readers each year, it has given one-on-one guidance to over 5,000 people leading thousands of people to change their career, and its work has been featured in publications such as TIME, Vox and the Wall Street Journal. Benjamin has a Master’s degree in Physics and Philosophy from Oxford, and speaks Chinese, badly.
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Praise for 80,000 Hours

A ridiculously in-depth guide about how to find that perfect career for you.

DR ALI ABDAAL, author of Feel-Good Productivity

This career guide is among the most thoughtful and grounded I’ve seen.

PROFESSOR CAL NEWPORT, author of Deep Work

This incredible group is helping people have a greater social impact with their careers.

SUE DESMOND-HELLMANN, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Every college grad should read this.

TIM URBAN, creator of Wait But Why

Based on evidence and good sense, not platitudes.

PROFESSOR STEVEN PINKER, author of Enlightenment Now

If you're worried about wasting your life, read this book. 80,000 Hours is what happens when more than a decade of serious research is distilled into a rigorous manual about what to do with your one life on this planet. This isn't feel-good advice about 'finding your passion'. It's the most careful and honest guide I know to choosing a career that actually makes a difference. I wish I had it when I was young!

RUTGER BREGMAN, author of Humankind

Excellent. 80,000 Hours is the most informative book you can read if you’re stuck trying to make one of life’s most important decisions. If this had been published a decade earlier, it’d have saved me many restless nights.

HANNAH RITCHIE, author of Not the End of the World