Nothing dashes the ego of an intellectual more than the realization that their successes are largely attributed to luck.
Sorry, tech-bros and biohackers, if you live for a long time, it's also going to come down to luck. You're going to spend a very long time trying really hard to make things happen, that in the end you will have no right to take credit for if you succeed.
Won't stop you though, will it? Because it's not about how you succeed, it's about how you look doing it, isn't it?
@dildog I know what you mean, vaguely, but I also think it takes a huge ego to push oneself forward in competitive fields. Do people who are modest and self-effacing change the world? Maybe some do, but it's usually that ego that helps push people past all the devastating self-doubt the rest of us are plagued with. I can be harmful, yes, but I understand it.
@hashtaggrammar Modest people do change the world, though. It's possible one doesn't hear about them as much because their team gets their share of the credit.
One can believe in a cause and act on it, without making oneself the place to which all praise is directed, right?
Success where a clear mind, and directed execution is needed is a balance between leadership and followership, and ego is detrimental to that balance.
Just observing things in the world that I don't want to become
@hashtaggrammar We can and should keep trying to do things like live longer. Not suggesting that the goals are not reasonable.
This is mostly a comment on ego. There's always someone smarter than you, and someone luckier. I'm just observing a bunch of people looking to build a cult of personality around successes that they don't truly own in that space.