Benjamin Todd

Standing up to the status quo is uncomfortable, and it can take decades for opinion to shift.

This means there's also little personal incentive to stand up for them.

Communication is also an area where the most successful efforts do far more than the typical efforts.

The most successful advocates influence millions of people, while others might struggle to persuade more than a few friends.

This means if you're an exceptionally good fit for communication, it's often the best thing you can do, and you're likely to achieve far more by doing it yourself than you could by funding someone to engage in communication or advocacy on your behalf.

Communication careers can be pursued as a full-time job, such as many jobs in the media, as part of a wider role like an academic who does science communication, or alongside almost any job, like Rosa Parks.

Communication careers are defined by their focus on spreading ideas on a big scale.

But it's also possible to have a similar impact on a more person-to-person level as a community builder.

For instance, the American women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony hated writing.

So while her co-founder at the Women's Loyal National League, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a powerful communicator, writing long books and editing their weekly newsletter, Anthony primarily focused on organizing and building a community.

Anthony's work, running events, talking to activists and building the suffragist community in the United States, eventually led to the 19th Amendment to the U.S.

Constitution, guaranteeing all adult women the right to vote.

It's often called the Anthony Amendment in her honor.

Community building often works well as a part-time position.

For instance, Kuhan was a student at Stanford when they came across 80,000 Hours and realized the importance of reducing existential risks.

However, they also saw there were no organizations on campus focusing on that idea.

So they founded the Stanford Existential Risk Initiative, which runs courses and conferences about the topic to build a community of students aiming to work on these risks.

Approach 3.

Research People often pan academics as ivory tower intellectuals whose writing has no impact.

And we agree there are many problems with academia that mean researchers achieve less than they could.