Ask HN: Small footprint vs. ambition

Ambitions don't have to be about material wants. I'd say the best, longest lasting ones, aren't even. And there is meaningful work to be found related to anti-materialism. I can think of writing/setting up software to let old hardware shine again, work on software to protect privacy, decentralize the internet, ... these are just on the top of me head. It just doesn't pay so well, and even if you are willing to accept the financial downgrade, these jobs are not so common and might require more work and dedication to land a position. Much like it is for most people outside of tech :)

You don't even have to make a job out of it. You seem to have strong beliefs. Do something with those beliefs and find something you feel is easy and worth it to put your energy into. Not easy, but can be fulfilling.

I have had hard time identifying non-materialistic ambitions. My mind has always been able to short circuit the ideas, similar to the ones you mentioned, as a way to make more money. Effectively turning them into greed, which is supposed to be bad. But I think I have been making wrong conclusions. As mentioned in other comments, developing a stronger feeling towards non-self pain points and retraining my mind would probably be the way to go.

Most of my beliefs are for self. Mostly because of the idea that each of us is a random instance, executing for optimizing random functions. Some are aware of the functions, and for some it is a black box. This breaks the boundaries between right and wrong etc in my mind and so on. But also diminishes the idea of exposing these beliefs and doing something with them seems meaningless.

Don't let yourself confined by what's "supposed to be". Trust your emotional state derive from what's good or bad from first principles (i.e. from experience).

That said - it's good to do an exercise and imagine it's 10 years later, you've created a company startup for the sole purpose of making one billion dollars, think about what you can do with the one billion dollars, what opportunities you've sacrificed, what you've risked.

How do you feel about it? Was it worth it? Would you do it again?

The answer might be different for everyone.

You can repeat for any other number of ambitious goals - getting married to a very good person; spending two decades raising children; moving to a new country; or even getting divorced; travelling around the world; becoming the best at an activity; become world famous for something, etc.

For any one goal - think, what kind of person tend to achieve that goal easily, then the price of achieving that goal is to become that kind of person. Do you still want to achieve goal? If I didn't want to become the kind of person who'd marry my partner, it means to me I didn't actually want to marry her to begin with. Personally, to achieve X, is equivalent to, to become the person who achieves X easily.

It helps me re-focus on what actions to take.

I keep a small footprint. My ambitions mostly grow out of personal need and pain. I have the impression that people who don't have large pain points in their life frequently have no significant ambition.

But I will suggest that 7 billion people and growing constitute a threat to your welfare. I have an interest in promoting small footprint solutions, though I don't feel I am very effective at it. I will suggest that a blog or other project to share what you know can be part of the solution for a world constantly threatening to come apart at the seams from global warming, animal extinction, water shortages etc.

I have come across a lot of folks in my life who have comfortable lives, by virtue of working hard for it or being born into it, and too have observed that they fall into a slump, such that a major shift to that lifestyle can bring them down to their knees. I am, frankly, scared of landing in a similar situation. I do try to keep myself sharp by reading/trying out things here and there, but since I don't apply them to a meaningful extent, I have hard time trusting these.

As far as sharing the stuff I know is concerned, I have held an opinion that I don't have any new knowledge. Most of what I know has been derived from works of others, and all of that is already available out there. So I have felt that duplicating that information just increases entropy without any meaningful gain to anyone. That is why I haven't made an effort in that direction.

I might sound like a bad human saying this, but I think I have been largely apathetic about the world. I do think about the worldly issues, usually going into a zone such that I am unable to sleep at night, but I don't think I have ever taken a step to contribute to it meaningfully. I will take up your suggestion and see if I can start putting my skills to use in that direction.

Over the next few decades we will face enormous challenges as a species, and there are lots of resources to inspire you what to dedicate your efforts towards. 80000hours.org is a good start; it has lots of links to other pages. Ambition is orthogonal to greed and vanity.

I do personally relate to your question. I catch myself thinking of myself as modest and content, when really I'm often just complacent. I have found that silence (i.e. literally turning off the music) has helped me become somewhat more alert to the unfulfilled parts of my life.

I've been running into a similar conundrum lately with learning an instrument. You kind of need the instrument and associated equipment. Same goes for athletic equipment and sports. I think it's necessary to make the compromise for things that do enrich your life even if they make moving difficult or your footprint greater than desired.

Some interests such as learning a new language require remarkably little things. A few apps, netflix, some books (could be electronic) and people to converse with.

That's odd. I love having a small footprint but am also very ambitious. It helps a lot because groupthink and chasing fame seems to gravitate towards mediocrity.

You can find your own path and go alone. It's very calming, like a hike up a hill or a motorcycle ride through the countryside. Modern tech makes it very easy to take your own path too.

Discovering your "flow" might help https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)