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>> This sentiment has very little actual substance to it. I'm dissatisfied because I want to do something meaningful. I want to leave behind tools that will better my species.

> That's something 1 in 10000 or even less do. Why it would be you (or me for that matter)?

One: because you think it will be you. 1 in N people do something meaningful. 1 in M people who think they will do something meaningful, end up doing so. M < N.

Anecdotal, of course, but so is everyone else here, so I'm not going to bother with proof. If you want to see what I mean, take a cue from what is presented as such sage advice upstream: look around you. Not many people are ambitious on a grand scale.

Two: out of the people who did something meaningful, few of them were helped by a "can't do" attitude. Even if not grounded in reality at all, you still need to have amibition, for that rare case where you do end up being the 1 in a million that does something meaningful.

Personally, I'm not a fan of this nihilist attitude so pervasive in cynical ex-geniuses. I encounter it a lot among formerly precocious children in compsci. It's negative, demotivating, and I regret ever taking this seriously.

So let me go on record to anyone who feels OP was talking you: the mere act of yearning to have a lasting effect on the world and on humanity makes you special. Forget the naysayers and the cynics. Leave the bitter undisciplined geniuses to their sour grapes. Go into the world and do what you can.

We need all the help we can get!

That's the key difference in viewpoint though:

>Two: out of the people who did something meaningful, few of them were helped by a "can't do" attitude. Even if not grounded in reality at all, you still need to have amibition, for that rare case where you do end up being the 1 in a million that does something meaningful.

Who says living your life, with its common challenges, etc, is NOT meaningful?

And that meaningful/happiness/success require some "superhuman" feats, millions in the bank, or whatever?

>Not many people are ambitious on a grand scale.

So? If I could change people's attributes on a grand scale, ambitious is not what I'd made them. More compassionate, more altruistic, more vigilant against BS, less polluting, more skeptical, etc -- there are tons of things I'd rather people be more than "ambitious".

If anything I'd say ambition is a surefire way to make people uglier, greedier, less tolerant and caring, more "me me me" (which in turn, hurts them too, because others are more "me me me" as well), less present for their family and friends, and ultimately (since only "1 in M people" end up really doing something meaningful), ambition makes them bitter, unhappy, depressed, and so on.

In fact the perfect recipe for the kind of self-absorbed and unhappy society we have now.

In the words of Radiohead:

  Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
  Kicking, squealing Gucci little piggy

> Enjoy life, nobody signed any contract with the universe that they'll be the "inventor" and "great artist" and so on.

On top of that, many of those we consider great did so in retrospect or late in life. I say, follow their example and enjoy the journey. Maybe you'll find that after you die you managed to do something important. Maybe not, but you'll have died doing something that's meaningful to you.

> and it's the idea of this unlimited potential that is a dangerous and damaging americanism peddled by snake-oil self-help gurus?

Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're down-playing one of our main exports there, buddy!

I will say, there is some wisdom in some of the those "self-help" ideas. They just beat you over the head with the same wisdom until you can't take it anymore and submit to their will.

stoicism encourages acceptance but I've always seen it as a form of defeatism past a certain point

a cowardly way to live with no ambition