ata comments on What big goals do we have? - Less Wrong

10 Post author: cousin_it 19 January 2010 04:35PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (92)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: ata 20 January 2010 06:29:42AM *  6 points [-]

Accumulate power, money or experiences. What for? I never understood that.

That reminds me of a story (not sure of its historicity, but it is illustrative) about an exchange between Alexander the Great and Diogenes the Cynic:

Diogenes asked Alexander what his plans were. "To conquer Greece," Alexander replied. "And then?" said Diogenes. "To conquer Asia Minor," said Alexander. "And then?" said Diogenes. "To conquer the whole world," said Alexander. "And then?" said Diogenes. "I suppose I shall relax and enjoy myself," said Alexander. "Why not save yourself a lot of trouble by relaxing and enjoying yourself now?" asked Diogenes.

(I love Diogenes. I disagree with him about a whole lot, but he pretty much invented keepin' it real. He had the best zingers in all of ancient Greece, too. "Behold Plato's man!")

Alexander's response is not recorded, but clearly he was not persuaded.

I suppose money and power are intrinsically motivating for some people, but for me — and I guess for you too — the possibility of acquiring them totally fails to move me unless I have something specific in mind that I need them for.