Note from Zershaaneh: Hello! We just published this career review on a very neglected path for making the future go well.
‘Macrostrategy’ encompasses a broad range of work, and this review isn't comprehensive. If you have suggestions to improve the piece, we'd be happy to hear them!
Read the full career review on the 80,000 Hours website →
Summary
In a nutshell:
We have a lot of unanswered questions about what the biggest threats facing humanity are, what work will matter most in the coming decades, and what it would even look like for things to ‘go well.’ Macrostrategy researchers try to answer big questions like these, which stake out new, uncertain territory.
We’re especially excited about macrostrategy research that focuses on the future of AI. Without this kind of work, we could easily fail to anticipate serious issues raised by the development of advanced AI, as well as lose out on opportunities for flourishing in a world with transformative technology.
Pros:
- A real chance to help shape humanity's long-term trajectory
- Extremely interesting and creative work, at the frontier of some of the hardest questions out there
- Very neglected: there are probably only dozens of dedicated researchers in the world, so additional effort could go a long way
Cons:
- Very few organisations and jobs
- Hard to be confident you're making progress, as you often can't verify your conclusions against reality
- Potentially less direct influence on decision makers than (for example) careers in AI governance or technical safety research
Key facts on fit:
You’ll need to be excellent at doing novel research, comfortable sitting with messy, ill-defined questions, and able to make progress on them independently — often without clear frameworks or established methods. Strong writing is also essential. The best candidates tend to be creative, analytically sharp, and great at reasoning under uncertainty.
If you want to do macrostrategy research focused on the future of AI, then you’ll also need a strong understanding of AI and its dynamics.
Previous research experience is very helpful. But even if you’ve had research positions before, we’d recommend testing your fit for this type of research before applying to jobs — see our suggestions in the full career review.
