sapolsky

“What advice would you give to yourself at age 21 ?”
“Be less ambitious”
https://youtu.be/D9H9qTdserM?t=1h27m7s

​sapolsky@stanford.edu
Robert,

Enjoying your talks.
I found this comment interesting, but it wasn’t elaborated upon.

If you could spare 15 seconds of your time, what did you mean by this?
(off the record, in confidence, of course)

I’ll make it multiple choice, to save you time!

A) Felt you should have spent more time on personal leisure and hobbies?
Work less and spend more time with (kids, exercise, golfing, trading stocks, whatever suits your whimsy?)
Work and professional status is overrated.    Money has diminishing marginal utility.
etc

B) Be less professionally ambitious in your lofty professional goals?  (For higher odds of success?)
eg: Like don’t tackle such complex issues that lead to dead ends, ambiguity, etc?
Pick easier stuff to research for better results?


Thanks!  (I am in camp A)

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From: Robert M Sapolsky
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2018 9:14 PM
To: S Soni
Subject: Re: "Be Less Ambitious" (21 year old self)


Thanks.  Definitely Version A.  A subset of Version B -- not so much to take on less ambitious, complex projects but, when taking them on, recognizing how unlikely you are to succeed...  Maybe implicit in that is to make sure you're enjoying the process sufficiently, given that the end product is unlikely to succeed.

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> make sure you're enjoying the process sufficiently, given that the end product is unlikely to succeed.

Wise words.

I am currently pursuing a particular skill-based activity to a “mastery” level.
It demands copious amounts of drill and practice.  (What began as leisure/entertainment begins to resemble work)
Your results over the short term are always going to be all over the place.
To pursue mastery, you can not focus on outcomes (b/c progress is never linear, and sometimes, growth may even appear negative as you take on more risk)
Instead, you must love the lifestyle and the process.   The outcome is a by-product of the passion/process, whatever it may be.
(The above skill happens to be tennis, in my case)

To take it further, “In the long run, we’re all dead”.
So, in a way, all you ever have is the process/experience.
Often, the outcome fades into obscurity anyway.
(Do you know who won Wimbledon in 1973?  Neither does anyone else.)


Ok, since:
A) Your answer was A
B) You enjoy humor

.....make sure you get to the very last line.
https://www.theonion.com/temp-hides-fun-fulfilling-life-from-rest-of-office-1819566599

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From: Robert M Sapolsky <sapolsky@stanford.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2018 12:56 PM
To: S Soni
Subject: Re: "Be Less Ambitious" (21 year old self)

Wise words back.

I guess that in addition to have spent more time with family, I regret not figuring out more things that I enjoyed doing for their own sake, regardless of endproduct.

That Onion piece is hysterical...