11. Are Ambitious People Inherently Selfish?

No Stupid Questions

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

Also: why do we habituate to life’s greatest pleasures?

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've seen more dogs dance the flamenco than I've seen children voluntarily give a piece
0:05.8	of their birthday cake.
0:07.0	I'm Antelda Dukwerth.
0:09.0	I'm Stephen Dubner.
0:10.0	And you're listening to No Stupid Questions.
0:13.4	Today on the show, is it possible to be self-interested and altruistic at the same time?
0:20.6	What if I want to be a drug dealer?
0:22.2	What if I want to be a politician?
0:23.4	That plainly has no good effect on anyone.
0:25.9	Yes.
0:26.9	Also, why do we become desensitized to the most wonderful things about life?
0:32.2	Can you imagine how blissed out I would be if every time I flushed a toilet, I thanked
0:36.7	my lucky stars.
0:37.9	Like, what kind of planet is this?
0:40.9	Is amazing!
0:41.9	Stephen, I have a question for you.
0:46.4	Sure.
0:47.4	In your experience, would you say that ambitious and successful people are also selfish?
0:56.0	Also as with every question and answer in the world, it's highly context dependent.
1:01.1	Ambition and success and service of what?
1:03.9	Ambitious in the service of promoting themselves as the best blank in the world or ambitious
1:09.5	in the service of something that's going to be a social or a public good.
	...

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