Spencer Greenberg

speaker

1,056 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 28 Jul

Spencer Greenberg’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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80,000 Hours Podcast · #249 – Spencer Greenberg on staying sane while trying to save the world · 28 Jul 2026 podcast

Yeah, well, I think we first have to acknowledge that the boom and bust where you get really freaked out and you work really hard and you feel burned out and you need to take a rest is just not the most effective way to achieve your goals, right?

And it's not the most effective way to achieve altruistic goals, but it's also not the best way to achieve your other values like being happy.

So it's kind of just like a bad strategy, not to criticize people that do it.

It's completely understandable why you would do this because you feel afraid, so you push really hard, but then that's unsustainable and you burn out, right?

But I think the first thing to accept is just on a cognitive level, this is not a healthy and not an effective strategy.

And then if you accept that, then the question is like, okay, which of those emotions are serving you?

And when they're not serving you, what can you do about that?

I think it is interesting to think about sort of, you know,

How would you want to act in these difficult situations?

What would the ideal version of you do?

Let's say you think that there's a really high chance that your existential risk is on the horizon.

Suppose you believe that, right?

Would you want yourself to just be freaked out 100% of the time?

Is that actually the ideal version of you?

And what is the ideal version of you?

How often would you be freaked out?

And to what degree?

And what would that fear do for you?

And I think when you do that thought experiment, you realize actually just being freaked out all the time is not even... On some level, it feels maybe proportionate to you, but it's actually not what you would want of yourself.

And the ideal version of you wouldn't be in that state.

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