Pop Quiz
Time for a random philosophical question!
Let's say you're really pumped about life because you're the best in the world at something you can help a lot of people with and make plenty of money on the side. Which of the following realizations is most devastating?
A. You're not really the best in the world. In fact, lots of people are just as good as you are.
B. You're not really helping people by doing this thing you're doing. No one really cares.
C. You can't actually make money doing it.
Let me know what you guys think! I'm really curious.
Let's say you're really pumped about life because you're the best in the world at something you can help a lot of people with and make plenty of money on the side. Which of the following realizations is most devastating?
A. You're not really the best in the world. In fact, lots of people are just as good as you are.
B. You're not really helping people by doing this thing you're doing. No one really cares.
C. You can't actually make money doing it.
Let me know what you guys think! I'm really curious.
posted by Resonance at
12:09 AM
1 Comments:
I think this is a trick question, in which one is supposed to pick option B (i.e., that not really helping people is the most devastating realization), because the other concerns (A and C) are relatively selfish.
That said, I'm going to reject the notion that selfishness is necessarily bad or even anti-social, and give you the honest answer instead.
Realization A, that you're not really the best in the world, is the most devastating--especially if you'd continued along your chosen career path for quite some time before being confronted with this nasty truth. B and C, while nasty, can be satisfactorily avoided by changing jobs. If your goals in life are to help people and make a living in the process, there are presumably a number of jobs that you'll find fulfilling--and while having to switch jobs upon realizing your current one isn't going to meet your goals might be an annoyance, it shouldn't be totally crushing.
But consider another scenario: say you're a very status-driven personality who's chosen a vocation you're passionate about--possibly even the ONLY job you can see yourself doing--and then you discover relatively late in the game that you're not actually as good at your job as you'd thought, that although you can't imagine switching jobs, you're destined for mediocrity. Now that's just horrible.
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