A framework for choosing

From “Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work that Matters, and Make Smarter Choices About Giving Back” by William Macaskill Over the last few years at 80,000 Hours, we’ve coached hundreds of people like Peter, as well as people later in their careers, most of whom find the following […]

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A shadow-casting monster

From “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker J. Palmer The first shadow-casting monster is insecurity about identity and worth.  Many leaders have an extroverted personality that makes this shadow hard to see. But extroversion sometimes develops as a way to cope with self-doubt: we plunge into external activity to

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Everyday mystics

From “What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman” by Lerita Coleman Brown Thurman demystified mysticism by framing it simply. Mystics are people who have a personal religious experience or an encounter with God. This description has freed me and many others from thinking that God appears to people only after years

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we learn to recognize him

From “Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life” by Henri Nouwen with Michael J. Christensen and Rebecca J. Laird It may be a bit disappointing initially that when we look for clear answers to the burning questions in our lives, we are left only with titles of books, experiences in nature, names of people, and

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Organizations That Grow

From “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, PhD Jim Collins set out to discover what made some companies move from being good to being great. What was it that allowed them to make the leap to greatness – and stay there – while other, comparable companies just held steady at good?

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From a collection of existing parts

rom “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” by Steven Johnson In the early 1920s, two Columbia University scholars named William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas decided to track down as many multiples as they could find, eventually publishing their survey in an influential essay with the delightful title “Are Inventions Inevitable?” Ogburn

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