80,000 hours
No.102
Friday 24 June
Hi, it's Nikki here.
As you know we’re shaking things up here at the newsletter, post our 100th edition.
David (being a creative) is very aware of falling into the trap of being complacent.
And not being complacent seems like a great place to start this newsletter.
It’s something none of us can afford to be - about anything any more - in a week where inflation has hit 9%. And the reality is that 9% can feel like a 100% hike if you’re already struggling to make ends meet.
Over the next few weeks we’re taking on some big themes.
New problems…. What are they, why do they look different and how can we solve them?
New systems?needed to solve new problems….how can we create and innovate systems that are fit for purpose and able to solve those problems?
And the biggie is the?new style of leadership?needed to run those systems and solve those problems.
So I’m going to pose a question I found on a website called?80,000 hours?last week.
You have at least 80,000 hours devoted to your working life, so which problems are you going to work on?
When you put it like this, it really makes you think. That’s a lot of hours and there’s some pretty big problems out there that need solving, so as?80,000 hours?says, your career is the biggest ethical decision you will make in your life….
Apparently it’s not about chasing the latest bandwagon problem, but finding the biggest gaps in the priorities served by the current economic and political system and doing our best to fill them.
You can listen to how some very smart and committed folk are spending their 80,000 hours here.
It struck me that Dame Lesley Regan might have had that epiphany a long time ago. As the first appointed tsar of women’s health, she has been tackling this neglected problem for years.
What Dame Lesley gets is that you can’t tackle problems using the systems that created the problem in the first instance. Solving problems often starts with dismantling the systems that have continuously failed to deliver effective solutions.
Which brings me back to those precious 80,000 hours. You’re going to need them if you want to genuinely make an impact on the problems being thrown at humanity. Let’s hope Dame Lesley has a few hours squirrelled away.
A white paper sounds dry but really understanding and humanising such a big problem is where the need to be a learn-it -all rather than a know-it-all continues to be the cornerstone of defining and solving any problem.
Ultimately the problems we need to step up and solve first of all need to be acknowledged. I turn to a rapper named Token. As a middle class middle aged woman, it’s probably not obvious that I’m a rap geek, but hey don’t judge a book. And I reference it for a simple reason: without the poets and the artists and the musicians and the activists, we can’t see what those problems are. Token raps about his personal problems and his lived experiences. But contained within the lyrics of “new problems” are the problems of identity and intersectionality, struggle and survival, what's real and what’s fake. Problems our young people are trying to solve everyday.
The line, “Acting like I’m not afraid of the future and all my new problems” seems like a phrase that transcends everything.
How we go about not being afraid is seeing problems as something to solve rather than swerve. And as Einstein says, it’s not about being smarter, it’s about staying with the problem longer. Going deep and being curious means we better define the problem and therefore are halfway to the solution as a result.
We also need to recognise spending 80,000 hours on a problem might not see its resolution but that doesn’t mean we don’t apply ourselves to it. The longest unsolved maths problem took 365 years to solve. Which brings me to my last point. The problems we face are not going to be solved by individuals but communities, across generations.??
Defining a problem and building a community to take on that problem is where the hope lies.
So I leave you with the problems shaping the 2022 international agenda. You never know, there might be one that you fancy committing a slice of your 80,000 hours to.
As always, curious to hear what you think.
领英推荐
Nikki Crumpton
Chief Strategy Officer at?BeenThereDoneThat
1. The 80,000 Hours Podcast
In-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them.
2.?Results of the ‘Women’s Health – Let’s talk about it’ survey
Read Time: 90m
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) launched a call for evidence in March 2021 to inform the first-ever government-led Women’s Health Strategy for England.
3.?Token - New Problems (Official Music Video)
Watch Time: 5m
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4.?The world in 2022: ten issues that will shape the international agenda
Read Time: 40m
Author:?Eduard Soler i Lecha, Senior Research Fellow, CIDOB (coordinated and edited)
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