80,000 Hours View
May 22 2025
Who are 80,000 Hours?
80,000 Hours is an organisation giving impact-oriented career advice. They want to help people work effectively on what they consider the most pressing problems in the world. 80,000 Hours is focused specifically on securing the long-term future of humanity and preventing risks from advanced AI, even though they have materials on many other causes as well.
80,000 Hours is a secular organisation, so they don’t have a theology of vocation or discernment, but we have outlined their views on impact and choosing a career to compare and contrast them with CFI’s view and other Christian views on vocational discernment.
Means of discernment
80,000 Hours heavily emphasizes analytic thinking, reason, and evidence when making career decisions.
They see impact as impartially increasing welfare.
They are particularly concerned about the future of humanity and risks from advanced AI.
80,000 Hours recommends speaking with experts.
As a secular organisation, their view lacks the aspects of church community and spiritual mentorship.
Prayer, Scripture, and supernatural revelation are also not part of their view on making career decisions, and they do not think about careers as a way of serving God.
Example
Key questions in the 80,000 Hours view would be “How can I most effectively tackle some of these pressing problems?” and “Where can I contribute the most with my skills / what skills could I develop to have a large positive impact?”
Comparison with CFI
80,000 Hours and Christians for Impact share a focus on impact, and there is significant overlap in our ideas about what impact means. However, 80,000 Hours, unlike CFI, does not consult Scripture as a source of evidence, nor does it emphasize prayer or Christian community in discernment. 80,000 Hours also does not consider missions to be an important cause area.