i wonder whether limiting human ambition to very specific (maybe one might argue lower effort, hopefully that's not too callous of a term) goals is actually som

i wonder whether limiting human ambition to very specific (maybe one might argue lower effort, hopefully that's not too callous of a term) goals is actually somewhat of a detriment, in that, if you aim for goals that are far more grandiose, then the likelyhood of a breakthrough for something like unlimited clean water for all of earth is actually a higher probability. presumably focusing on long distance spaceflight will need inventions within the drinking water realm, and reusable <insert thing here> with very tight resources/constraints. surely this is the smarter way to think about this kind of thing?