[ExI] instilling ambition

[Anders Sandberg]

On 19/01/2013 21:19, Stefano Vaj wrote:
>> Any other ideas of how to instil grand ambition in people? Force them to read a bit of Rand, Nietzsche or von Braun?
> Not sure about Rand, but Nietzsche and von Braun have been my idols
> since age 14... :-)

It would be interesting to see when great ambition is founded in life. I 
have a suspicion that it is pretty common for kids to develop it at an 
early age, but it would be good to analyse the necessary preconditions 
and triggers. People have been looking at the life histories of 
exceptional people checking for preconditions of talent blossoming, but 
I don't know if the same thing has been done for ambition. (I did not 
find much in PubMed, at least; see below)

I have never been much for idols, but clearly reading sf at an early age 
filled me with the idea that one *could* be amazingly ambitious - the 
heroes of Jules Verne, the epic projects of classic hard sf, finally the 
cosmological re-engineering of Dyson and Tipler. The key thing was the 
realization that the universe is enormous, yet there exist actions that 
allow you to leverage things to ever greater scales. So I just set out 
to make myself into some kind of scientist-hero able to do that, 
pursuing self-enhancement, learning and networking. I just wish more 
people did that kind of attempted life -shaping.


Some relevant papers:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22545622
On the value of aiming high: the causes and consequences of ambition.

    "Results indicated that ambition was predicted by individual
    differences-conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and
    general mental ability-and a socioeconomic background variable:
    parents' occupational prestige. Ambition, in turn, was positively
    related to educational attainment, occupation prestige, and income.
    Ambition had significant total effects with all of the endogenous
    variables except mortality."

http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1963-03848-001
Some family determinants of ambition.
Again, family education and family stability seemed relevant. However, I 
suspect the ambition they looked for were merely aiming at a prestigious 
occupation, not changing the world.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22180878
Ambition gone awry: the long-term socioeconomic consequences of 
misaligned and uncertain ambitions in adolescence.
This one shows that having aspirations that are in line with reality is 
helpful, at least when it comes to occupational status.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21921915
The evolution of overconfidence.
This is an argument why we are all a bit overconfident on average. But 
overconfidence is not the same as ambition.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19070437
Why are modern scientists so dull? How science selects for perseverance 
and sociability at the expense of intelligence and creativity.
Argues that modern science selects strongly for intelligence and 
conscientiousness, when it should be selecting for intelligence and 
psychoticism (the personality trait) if it wants to break new ground.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Faculty of Philosophy
Oxford University

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