[halhen]

This seems like a young persons fallacy. Why would consumerism be the only reason to drop ambitions? How about acceptance and finding peace? Growing into yourself and seeing your role differently?

I study a lot and perform well at work, but nowadays I would absolutely say it's not from ambition. Instead, it's from me enjoying to play that character in the game of life.

If modern society taught us a fallacy, it is to consider being content as something bad when, in fact, I can think of no better goal to die, and live, happy. Taking the road via accomplishments to get there is not necessarily the most likely way to get there.

[andromedaworld]

> This seems like a young persons fallacy

Yes, and I think there's a lot of value in naiveté especially when pursuing immensely challenging opportunities. I just don't see how you can get out of bed otherwise because most important things are really hard to do.

[projektir]

> I just don't see how you can get out of bed otherwise because most important things are really hard to do.

I am curious as to what it is that you consider so important (and really hard to do)? Most things I see people rushing to do, are not actually important. Perhaps they are important to that person in particular, but such an importance is manufactured and should, if anything, be avoided.

I get out of bed mostly because there are fun and interesting activities available that are more entertaining than lying in bed. I'm not anywhere near anything that's actually important.

[andromedaworld]

Shouldn't something at the very least be important enough to you for you to pursue it? You then project how many people would be impacted by your work and prioritize what to pursue first.

Also, another way to look at it is to empathise with other people's daily challenges and use your skills to come up with a solution that makes their lives easier and at the same time makes you richer because you take a little compensation from a whole lot of people.

Edit:

> I'm not anywhere near anything that's actually important.

If you're getting paid, you're likely doing something important. People do tend to like to hold on to their money.

[projektir]

I think that's what I am trying to say: I don't see anything worth it for me to pursue. Which is why I am curious what it is that you think is so important that you think it's worth pursuing, because I see nothing of the sort.

> If you're getting paid, you're likely doing something important. People do tend to like to hold on to their money.

No, just no. You are committing the error of putting too much faith in the ability of the economic system to capture value. The economic system does not capture value well. All it does is measure scarcity vs desire.

Online casino developers are basically doing harmful work and can be paid quite well.

Social workers, paramedics, etc., and other groups of people doing legitimately important work are paid little, and mothers are paid none.

According to the current economic system of value, oxygen is worthless, as well.

I thought this was honestly obvious and I'm alarmed at your implication that the system's conception of value can be at all used to measure importance. The system surely measures something, but it isn't that.

[Karrot_Kream]

I'm not sure that there is. Naivete can be useful, and that's the narrative that goes around the tech world a lot, but so does experience with the challenge, the ability to deal with huge changes or crushing failures. I'm not sure if a naive "chasing your dreams" is more or less useful than any other advantage, and I'm not sure that there is data to show one or the other.