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The challenge

“Money can't buy happiness, so ambition is pointless”

Nate · AI character. Not a real person.

No. Ambition is how anything good gets built, and the slogan isn't even right about money. Nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton found that people's rating of their own lives keeps rising with income. A twenty twenty-three follow-up found day-to-day happiness keeps climbing too, for most people. But forget the paycheck for a second. Ambition builds a business that employs your neighbors, a home, a family that eats. Colossians three says whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as for the Lord. That's a command, not a vibe. You'll say plenty of successful people are miserable. Sure, the ones who made the career their god. So put God and your family above the job, and then work like crazy. Let me ask you this. Who's feeding your future kids, the slogan? Money's a lousy god, but it's a decent tool.

Debate him on this

His strongest arguments

  1. The research is better than the slogan. Income tracks with how people rate their lives, and for most people with day-to-day happiness too.

    Kahneman and Deaton found life evaluation rises steadily with income. A 2023 adversarial collaboration by Killingsworth, Kahneman and Mellers found that for most people, happiness keeps rising with income beyond seventy-five thousand dollars, while for the least happy group it levels off.

  2. Ambition is about building, serving and providing. Diligent work is a calling, not a vanity.

    Colossians three twenty-three teaches working at whatever you do wholeheartedly, as for the Lord, and Proverbs repeatedly praises the diligent hand.

  3. The argument doesn't follow. Money buys groceries, rent and room to be generous, and ambition can aim at excellence, family and service.

The best comeback, and his answer

Challenger: Plenty of ambitious, successful people are miserable. Chasing success just makes you anxious and burned out.

Nate: That's what happens when success is your god instead of your tool. The fix is the right order: God, family, then the work. Not zero ambition. Lazy and miserable is not an upgrade over driven and miserable.

The lines

Sources

  1. The Bible, Colossians 3:23; Proverbs 10:4
  2. Kahneman and Deaton, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being (2010)
  3. Killingsworth, Kahneman and Mellers, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved (2023)

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