To find work you love, don't follow your passion | Benjamin Todd | TEDxYouth@Tallinn

Right, it doesn't exist anyway. So how do we make the valuable in our

work

, what are the steps to

follow

? This is what we spend most of our time trying to

work

on for 80,000 hours, and I'll give you a very quick summary of three things that we can say are possible to do. The first is to discover, learn what you can for the good of the world, test

your

self in different things. If you want to do what is valuable, you have to discover it in the world, you cannot discover it by thinking only about

your

interests.

Secondly,

follow

some of your skills, try to develop them and excel in them. These are skills that are in demand and can be used in many places. Maybe choose programming as an example for decades to come. From this abyss your

passion

arises. Think about your

passion

has arrived now. Because what you are passionate about now can give you an idea of ​​what you can be good at in the future, so it is worth thinking about this, but these are not the most important things. When you

find

these skills,

find

the biggest, most pressing problems you can and apply your skills to solve them.

Don't pick an issue just because it's important, try to find one that has been unfairly ignored by others, because that's where you'll have the best impact. And in the end, do not think that to do what is valuable, you must be a doctor and personally go to Africa and help people with your own hands. Major social problems must be, and often are, solved through scientific research. , developing new technologies, spreading great ideas through art. The key is knowing where your skills fit to make the best impact. I think the idea that we should do what is truly valuable is intuitive.

Now I want you to imagine yourself on your deathbed and think about your 80,000 hours of work. Instead of just starting, imagine two paths you could follow. At first you will say to yourself: “I found what I did, I enjoyed what I did, I made a lot of money, now I have two houses and a yacht, but why all that?” In the second, you will tell yourself: "I dedicated most of my energy to one of the charities, and that was not easy, but with my efforts I prevented the death of more than 100 children from malaria, but why all? ” The first scenario happens all the time, but the second scenario is impossible to imagine, of course.

This was a worthwhile profession. Altruism is one of the things that cannot be ignored if we really want to be satisfied with our work. , we must stop focusing so much on our interests. On the other hand, ask yourself what you can do for others. Imagine a world like the one that is in everyone's mind. So, to find the job you

love

, don't follow your passion. instead, do what's valuable. Discover, build skills, solve the toughest problems, and in doing so, an exciting and fulfilling career will emerge. You have 80,000 hours in your job, don't waste them. What's valuable?