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> For the people who are busy working on something they find important, most often 'status' is not even a thing. I'd slightly modify that to say that what they

by veddox 6y ago

> For the people who are busy working on something they find important, most often 'status' is not even a thing. I'd slightly modify that to say that what they were doing was more important to them than status - which isn't the same as saying they didn't care about status at all. I read a number of biographies of great US presidents in the last year, and found it fascinating to see that pretty much all of them were intensely ambitious. What made the difference is that they ultimately cared more about the people they served than about serving their own ego.

mattgreenrocks 6y ago
> I'd slightly modify that to say that what they were doing was more important to them than status - which isn't the same as saying they didn't care about status at all. Agree. I refer to this as meaningful work. It can be difficult to describe to others why it is important, but it is important to them at that time. The joy of such work is that status does not weigh upon it as much as other endeavors. I suspect some of this success reverse-engineering efforts sometimes runs ramshod over non-extrinsic motivations because they're not as apparent, especially to the authors of such pieces.
probe 6y ago
Whose biographies did you read and what else did you learn from this study? Sounds like a fun adventure
- veddox 6y ago
  Started with Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Leadership", which is a 4-in-1 biography of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ. I cannot recommend it highly enough! (Here's my more detailed write-up: https://terranostra.one/posts/Review-Lessons-from-the-Presidents.html https://terranostra.one/posts/Review-Lessons-from-the-Presid...) Then went on to Ron Chernow's "Washington" (another great book), and am currently on Jean Edward Smith's "FDR". If you're interested in presidential biographies, have a look at this guy's page: https://bestpresidentialbios.com/ https://bestpresidentialbios.com/

by veddox 6y ago

mattgreenrocks 6y ago

> I'd slightly modify that to say that what they were doing was more important to them than status - which isn't the same as saying they didn't care about status at all. Agree. I refer to this as meaningful work. It can be difficult to describe to others why it is important, but it is important to them at that time. The joy of such work is that status does not weigh upon it as much as other endeavors. I suspect some of this success reverse-engineering efforts sometimes runs ramshod over non-extrinsic motivations because they're not as apparent, especially to the authors of such pieces.

probe 6y ago

Whose biographies did you read and what else did you learn from this study? Sounds like a fun adventure

veddox 6y ago
Started with Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Leadership", which is a 4-in-1 biography of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ. I cannot recommend it highly enough! (Here's my more detailed write-up: https://terranostra.one/posts/Review-Lessons-from-the-Presidents.html https://terranostra.one/posts/Review-Lessons-from-the-Presid...) Then went on to Ron Chernow's "Washington" (another great book), and am currently on Jean Edward Smith's "FDR". If you're interested in presidential biographies, have a look at this guy's page: https://bestpresidentialbios.com/ https://bestpresidentialbios.com/