I was talking with someone about why most EAs are not a good romantic match for me, and I said "well, for one thing, most of them are not ambitious enough."
I had to clarify that when I said "ambitious", I didn't mean "aiming to get a prestigious high paying, conventional job."
I had to clarify that when I said "ambitious", I didn't mean "aiming to get a prestigious high paying, conventional job."
https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1078396529075924992
It was disheartening to me to realize that what most people mean by the world "ambitious" is something that I consider somewhere between boring and pathetic, because I had been previously thinking that it was a key-word that filters for part of what I care about.
The thing I care about is something more like "in whatever you're trying to do, refusing to be satisfied with the level of success that is typical, or that others of expect of you."
eg aiming to actually have a correct world model, despite how "everyone's biased".
Striving to makes something truly great, worthy of admission to the cannon of your craft: a truly great novel, truly great software, a truly great company culture. Work that goes above and beyond.
Striving to makes something truly great, worthy of admission to the cannon of your craft: a truly great novel, truly great software, a truly great company culture. Work that goes above and beyond.
Or after every success, asking how you could save an order of magnitude more lives / do an order of magnitude more good / create an order of magnitude more value, instead of getting comfortable doing the same thing over and over again.
Or working tirelessly to bring to fruition some vision that you can see, despite the fact that when you talk to most people about it, they tell you that that reference class has already been explored.
(h/t @Conaw, as an example now legible to most people.)
(h/t @Conaw, as an example now legible to most people.)
Or striving to literally, not as a buzz word, but for real, change the world.
Like, human history flows in a different direction than the counterfactual, because you happened to be born.
Like, human history flows in a different direction than the counterfactual, because you happened to be born.
To be clear, not everyone needs to be ambitious, and I love many people who aren't.
But compared to the thing that I mean here, "acquire prestige" is so lame.
Instead of working your ass off to do something great, you work your ass off for social approval? Come on.
But compared to the thing that I mean here, "acquire prestige" is so lame.
Instead of working your ass off to do something great, you work your ass off for social approval? Come on.
@threadreaderapp unroll
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
