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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.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Jan 26, 2019

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

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?

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

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I feel like a huge component of this is captured in the overall optimism and hope level of a society as a whole, too—things like the Space Race would have done this at scale, I imagine

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This is a big part of what I do now. I can tell you anecdotally that for Aussie founders (brought up in a culture that wants to cut down any “tall poppies”) the delta is enormous.