David Brooks在NYT的最新文章：Be Careful About What You Want

如何驾驭野心而不被其吞噬，如何在追求成功的同时保持道德完整性

ambition is both a blessing and a curse. Ambitious people are also more likely to be ruthless, manipulative, status-obsessed and so focused on worldly success that they become hollow inside.

Our entire meritocracy is built around the striving for superiority. It’s not that you’re good; what matters is you’re ranked higher, you got into a more exclusive school. The social media world is a world of vicious ranking and comparison.

The quality of your ambition will be shaped by the goal you’re ambitious for. As philosophers down the ages have noticed, if you hunger for power you will always feel powerless and fear treachery; if you hunger for approval you will always have to be people pleasing; if you hunger for money you will never have enough; but if you hunger for understanding, your world will always be filled with wonders; and if you hunger for God, you will be hungering for perfect love itself and your hunger, I believe, will be purified by that love.

We want to love and be loved, which is a noble ambition, but we think we can get them by looking good, being in the know, being popular with the in crowd. Idolatry is an ultimate longing for a finite thing. Like all addictions, this form of miswanting demands more and more of a person, while offering less and less.

Professional success often comes from being wholehearted, from moving unreservedly after one goal. But the people we admire are often divided against themselves, burning hot with some ambition while trying to transcend the flames.