Jonathan Stern

A theory of ambition

In January, I posted the following question on Twitter. “What makes a person high-ambition vs. low-ambition? Is it more nature or nurture?”

I tagged Paul Graham and Rob Henderson, thinking at least one might respond. Neither did! So I decided to come up with my own ideas. Mostly they're the result of introspection plus thinking about friends from high school, college, and here in Boston.

  1. Extreme cases in either direction are a product of nature. For everyone else, ambition is mostly a product of nurture.
  2. By nurture, I mean one’s early-life influences + environment: friends, siblings, parents, where one grows up.
  3. Weed seems to be just about the worst thing a person can do if they want to be ambitious. I've never done it. Just an observation.
  4. Junk food, exercise, and sunlight matter a little bit but I doubt they really move the needle. They mostly just affect mood.
  5. Alcohol definitely doesn’t seem to make people more ambitious, but neither does it seem to be all that negative.
  6. After the age of ~18, ambition is mostly fixed.
  7. Three formative periods: (1) youth, 0-18 y.o. - matters the most by far. (2) college, 18-22 y.o., (3) post-college, 20s. Level of ambition may shift into one's 20s but very unlikely to dramatically shift into one’s 30s
  8. For those who do experience shifts in ambition, the most common direction is downward. People are far likelier to become less ambitious than more, over time. Not uncommon for a person to start out wanting to be an astronaut and end up in middle management.
  9. Maybe controversial: On average people from Judeo-Christian traditions are more ambitious than “nones”. Probably due to a sense of duty to fulfill individual potential and contribute to the world.
  10. If you want your child to achieve great things, don’t send them to elite universities because that’s where they'll get the best education. Send them to elite universities because that’s where other ambitious people are. Ambition is contagious. Ambitious people thrive around like-minded peers. As Paul Graham has said: “Ambitious people are rare... put them together with other ambitious people, they bloom like dying plants given water."