As Tracey Davis would say, that’s not true! And what’s it mean?
Seems like there’s power over others and power over things to happen. To become ambitious about the first kind, most people only need a chance to taste and realize what it is they’re tasting. The setting might be for the greater good, the reflection might discourage the pupil, but the option will be on the table.
As to the power over things to happen, it requires serious autonomy (an ability to pick the real dependencies between things and to keep a roof over one’s head meanwhile) and/or serious despair (as in people who might survive cancer).
I mean that ‘ambitious’ people might be ‘just generally ambitious’ - I see some of them when they come to buy books on self-help or startups or esoteric things. They might be ‘ambitious, as in wanting to have power over other people’, & then they buy books on, say, romantic relationships or English for two-year-olds, or planners; but largely it’s also a hobby. Some of them do get to wield this power and are content with it. Some do collect thousands of likes on Facebook or Youtube, and are visible, and therefore counted ambitious by others.
And then there are people who want power over things, over events in the world. The least ‘personal’ example is a scientist, but the volunteer who sends winter clothes to families living on occupied land and the sniper who crouches on the roof above a demonstration, they also belong to this species. And I have yet to peg them down when they enter my bookstore. They are… invisible.
I think the category I’m most interested in is something like “ambitious creators”, and I’d expect them to buy books related to whatever thing they’re trying to create. (They would probably buy some books on self help and entrepreneurship, and they’d also buy books about music or math or programming or whatever)
Hmm, they must be rare. Most likely, shopping online and in English… one side of ambitiousness would be then ‘willingness to pay’, maybe even ‘willingness to pay to become known as such a person’.
As Tracey Davis would say, that’s not true! And what’s it mean?
Seems like there’s power over others and power over things to happen. To become ambitious about the first kind, most people only need a chance to taste and realize what it is they’re tasting. The setting might be for the greater good, the reflection might discourage the pupil, but the option will be on the table.
As to the power over things to happen, it requires serious autonomy (an ability to pick the real dependencies between things and to keep a roof over one’s head meanwhile) and/or serious despair (as in people who might survive cancer).
I’m having trouble parsing this comment (in part because I can’t tell which part of my comment this is replying to). Could you restate it?
Sorry, I often have this problem.
I mean that ‘ambitious’ people might be ‘just generally ambitious’ - I see some of them when they come to buy books on self-help or startups or esoteric things. They might be ‘ambitious, as in wanting to have power over other people’, & then they buy books on, say, romantic relationships or English for two-year-olds, or planners; but largely it’s also a hobby. Some of them do get to wield this power and are content with it. Some do collect thousands of likes on Facebook or Youtube, and are visible, and therefore counted ambitious by others.
And then there are people who want power over things, over events in the world. The least ‘personal’ example is a scientist, but the volunteer who sends winter clothes to families living on occupied land and the sniper who crouches on the roof above a demonstration, they also belong to this species. And I have yet to peg them down when they enter my bookstore. They are… invisible.
I think the category I’m most interested in is something like “ambitious creators”, and I’d expect them to buy books related to whatever thing they’re trying to create. (They would probably buy some books on self help and entrepreneurship, and they’d also buy books about music or math or programming or whatever)
Hmm, they must be rare. Most likely, shopping online and in English… one side of ambitiousness would be then ‘willingness to pay’, maybe even ‘willingness to pay to become known as such a person’.