Thanks. This is a different lens than my pet theory but seems pretty compatible with it.
My pet theory was specifically “one contributor towards people becoming ambitious is having someone they respect tell them that they believe in them (credibly signaling it by spending at least a few hours talking to them about their projects and goals and how to achieve them).” This is based on what happened to me and a few other people I know who gained certain kinds of ambition.
[This comes with some background beliefs that ambition is generally good, in particular when the ambition is of the form ‘create something’, rather than ‘be the best at something’ (which is zero-sum). This may be a different lens than you’re currently looking through]
This seems somewhat downstream of the sort of thing you’re point at here, which seems to be pointing at two clusters:
What sort of personality do you need to have for “become ambitious” to be a live option (including healthy and unhealthy mechanisms)
What sort of things could actively harm your capacity for ambition.
Both of which suggest much earlier interventions than what I was thinking about. I basically want all the interventions going on, but at the earlier stages, it’s not obvious that the right thing for a person is to become ambitious. Rather, I want them to have a psychologically outlook that lets them be generally physically and emotionally healthy and reasonably productive (because these are generally good things).
Once they get to that stage, maybe the right thing for them is to tackle ambitious projects, maybe not. But it seems better to think of interventions at that stage to be more oriented towards ‘help the person become generally healthy’ rather than ‘help them become ambitious.’
For people just reaching the stage where they’re considering an ambitious project (either one that’ll directly accomplish something, or help them grow) I think having a someone give them a few hours of encouragement and guidance is a fairly high-value-for-low-cost.
(This does seem like something that might be most relevant for people motivated by approval of others, although I think might also fit with other motivation clusters. Possible exception that people motivated by power seem least likely to need someone else to believe in them to pursue power?)
Yeah, I agree that at the earlier stages it’s not clear that ambition is a thing to aim for, and I would also advise people to prioritize health broadly.
I agree that encouragement and guidance is good, and more generally think that mentorship is really, really deeply important. I am not about this “individual rationality” life anymore. It’s group rationality or nothing.
Thanks. This is a different lens than my pet theory but seems pretty compatible with it.
My pet theory was specifically “one contributor towards people becoming ambitious is having someone they respect tell them that they believe in them (credibly signaling it by spending at least a few hours talking to them about their projects and goals and how to achieve them).” This is based on what happened to me and a few other people I know who gained certain kinds of ambition.
[This comes with some background beliefs that ambition is generally good, in particular when the ambition is of the form ‘create something’, rather than ‘be the best at something’ (which is zero-sum). This may be a different lens than you’re currently looking through]
This seems somewhat downstream of the sort of thing you’re point at here, which seems to be pointing at two clusters:
What sort of personality do you need to have for “become ambitious” to be a live option (including healthy and unhealthy mechanisms)
What sort of things could actively harm your capacity for ambition.
Both of which suggest much earlier interventions than what I was thinking about. I basically want all the interventions going on, but at the earlier stages, it’s not obvious that the right thing for a person is to become ambitious. Rather, I want them to have a psychologically outlook that lets them be generally physically and emotionally healthy and reasonably productive (because these are generally good things).
Once they get to that stage, maybe the right thing for them is to tackle ambitious projects, maybe not. But it seems better to think of interventions at that stage to be more oriented towards ‘help the person become generally healthy’ rather than ‘help them become ambitious.’
For people just reaching the stage where they’re considering an ambitious project (either one that’ll directly accomplish something, or help them grow) I think having a someone give them a few hours of encouragement and guidance is a fairly high-value-for-low-cost.
(This does seem like something that might be most relevant for people motivated by approval of others, although I think might also fit with other motivation clusters. Possible exception that people motivated by power seem least likely to need someone else to believe in them to pursue power?)
Yeah, I agree that at the earlier stages it’s not clear that ambition is a thing to aim for, and I would also advise people to prioritize health broadly.
I agree that encouragement and guidance is good, and more generally think that mentorship is really, really deeply important. I am not about this “individual rationality” life anymore. It’s group rationality or nothing.