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Sure, this specific advice is not appropriate for everyone, but I love the genre of optimism-generating media. Everyone has some optimism/ambition "efficient frontier" (relative to risk tolerance, values, etc); many behave nowhere close. A simple nudge can remind what's possible.

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Sam Altman

@sama

· Jan 24, 2019

How To Be Successful: blog.samaltman.com/how-to-be-succ This is very long, but I think one of the most important things I've ever written.

6:09 PM · Jan 26, 2019Twitter Web Client

Replying to

I'm not even prescribing a normative "people should be more optimistic" (though I think that too). What's so striking is that people often undershoot optimism/ambition relative to *their own* held beliefs about what is possible and valuable. They're just using cached thoughts.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Jan 26, 2019

On a few occasions, I've had the opportunity to help others notice this. It's a startling experience: people react a bit like they were caught talking in their sleep. Others have done this for me a few times, and I'm so grateful. See also

@tylercowen

's marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Jan 26, 2019

What's the total "inefficiency" in human potential represented by this optimism gap? What is the maximum return to increasing optimism—even if only to match people's own professed held and values? What about to the level which reflects reality?

Replying to

Why should anyone need to be encouraged to solve bigger problems? Why should smallness, mediocrity, or stasis be the default? Aspects of our culture promote stasis by disabling our creativity in various areas, preventing us from even attempting or conceiving of improvements.

Carlos De la Guardia

@dela3499

Jan 26, 2019

I suspect scientific norms are exceptional here. For example, one is seldom laughed at for attempting to improve something, whatever the perceived scale of the problem. Outside science, ‘realistic’, ‘attainable’, ‘normal’, ‘down-to-earth’ attitudes dominate.