

Ask HN: Do you consider ambition to be a virtue or a flaw? - ssn


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_delirium
I'll go with the boring cop-out of, "it depends".

I think it has positive effects, the main one being greater motivation to work
on hard problems and see them to completion. It can also have negative
effects, such as an unwillingness to do anything that doesn't directly advance
one's career, and a tendency to avoid hard problems for quick-win types of
problems.

So I guess it depends on how you use it. The stereotypical politician and
scientist are each ambitious in a way, but "want to become President" and
"want to win a Nobel Prize" are ambitions that manifest themselves somewhat
differently. I tend to trust people more if their ambition appears to be
somehow tied up with the subject matter rather than purely social status: I'm
wary of people whose sole ambition is to become rich/famous/successful, but
admire people who are very ambitious when it comes to wanting to
revolutionize/advance some field or activity.

~~~
jaxn
Which could be described as "driven".

