"That's not the career path of someone who has any direction or ambition"
This is essentially a veiled ad-hominem attack. You don't know the author's motivations or reasons for taking these jobs. You can't a priori assume that he took these jobs because he's lazy and unmotivated.
This is a straw man attack. Lack of direction, and ambition doesn't mean lazy or unmotivated. His job choices show lack of direction, with the random job walk he has done so far he certainly isn't moving in one direction. Same with ambition there doesn't seem to be any greatness seeking in his job selection.
"Again - you don't know what his internal process was for picking these jobs. You can't mind read and impute motivations for his selections."
Well, it's obviously not working for the guy. He has clearly voiced his dissatisfaction with his life, which includes the jobs that he has taken. Someone that is doing what they love, even if it isn't making that much money, will be happy.
"Well, it's obviously not working for the guy. He has clearly voiced his dissatisfaction with his life, which includes the jobs that he has taken."
Yes, but it does not follow that he is therefore directionless or lacks ambition. Plenty of successful doctors and lawyers have the same problem.
"Someone that is doing what they love, even if it isn't making that much money, will be happy."
Over simplification. I have known numerous people who loved what they where doing without being very happy about the things that came along with that. Artists, musicians, teachers. Just because you love what you do doesn't automatically make you happy, believe it or not.
"Plenty of successful doctors and lawyers have the same problem."
Taking random jobs to put yourself through medical school is much different than taking random jobs with seemingly no direction. If he does have some ambitious life goals, he doesn't make it very apparent in this article.
"I have known numerous people who loved what they where doing without being very happy about the things that came along with that."
If you are doing what you claim to love, yet you hate everything that comes along with it..I don't think you are doing what you really love.
I suppose from the article, we can surmise that the author loves being a hospital orderly or the guy that runs the drive-thru at jack-in-the-box and is just unhappy about the things that come with it. Right?
What on earth is this? Nothing you said follows from, or was implied by, anything in the post you're responding to. The whole thing is a big non-sequiter.
Lazy and unmotivated are about his internal state, which you correctly point out we don't know. Lack of direction and ambition are observations of exterior actions. He is not moving in a direction, so we can say he lacks direction. He doesn't seek to be great or even good at anything so he lacks ambition. In making those two observations we have not ascribed any reason why he lacks ambition or direction. So complaining about people not knowing his motivations when we are talking about his actions not his motivations, is in fact a straw man.
Ambition is a personality trait, just like laziness and motivation. Your definition of the word is hella nonstandard. You can have internal ambition without there being a noticeable external effect, due to things like lack of opportunity, poor health, children, ignorance about what opportunities are present, and so on and so forth.
This is essentially a veiled ad-hominem attack. You don't know the author's motivations or reasons for taking these jobs. You can't a priori assume that he took these jobs because he's lazy and unmotivated.