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Notes -
Yep. Strong agree there.
I won't say that the methods of acquiring and wielding power are completely orthogonal to those of identifying and pursuing an actual goal in the real world, but focus too much on the former and you won't develop the latter. And that feeling of confusion when you have power but aren't actually happy can lead people to start doing very ill-advised things. Better to figure out where you want things to go before you go about getting power.
I think I have a strong negative reaction to observing someone who has acquiring substantial power but seems unable to do anything with it other than lord it over others or engage in vulgar displays of power purely for the sake of it. There's not much to respect about those persons who have climbed to the top of the hierarchy and then have no clue what they actually want to do once they get there.
This might be why I have an ongoing appreciation for Elon Musk. Whatever power he has, he's using it all towards bringing the world closer to the state he would like it to be in, and he VERY CLEARLY articulates what that looks like to him. Beats billionaires who seemingly have no clue what they actually want to achieve and thus start throwing money around at various causes seemingly at random.
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