Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference

Yes, words matter, and to some extent they even shape our reality. But in the end, what you do matters far more.

If the fight against smallpox, polio, and malaria shows us anything, it's that we can't make the world a wildly better place without science.

In short: there are limits. Morality plays a big role in a rich and full life, but it's not everything. And if your inner fire burns bright, no need to stoke it hotter. In any case, don't let yourself be fuelled by a sense of guilt or shame, but rather with enthusiasm and a lust for life. Be ambitious, not perfect. There comes a point when you're fine just the way you are.

The last thing we need is blind optimism about technology.

In the end, I think it had to do with a unique combination of four characteristics you almost never find in a single person. But taken together, folks at the school have them all. Call them the four main ingredients of moral ambition: 1 the idealism of an activist 2 the ambition of a startup founder 3 the analytical mind of a scientist 4 the humility of a monk

If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise,’ writes the journalist George Monbiot, ‘every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.

Politics is reduced to a spectator sport you watch from your sofa.

Ja, we hebben activisten nodig die strijden tegen al het onrecht in het hier en nu, maar er is ook behoefte aan makers en bouwers van de toekomst.

Ondertussen voelen we ons misschien vrij, maar eigenlijk volgen we het script dat hoort bij ons soort leven.

Angst voor verandering is de eerste ouderdomsziekte die zich aandient in een mensenleven.