I hesitate to include talent in a definition of hard work. Talent (rather than skill) is something you're born with.
Ambition is also iffy. For example, ambitious women (Hillary Clinton, say) are bitches or uppity, because of the existing societal gender norms.
I don't like that Americans value ambition so highly. We don't all have to be top of the class, most likely to succeed, 80-hour-week workaholics. We *shouldn't* be.
What's wrong with wanting to get a job that pays a decent wage (aka a living wage) and keep on keeping on? I don't want to be president of the board of pharmacy, or district manager of a chain, or any of that shit. I value my personal life and my creative time far more highly than prestige or whatever.
(I *do* want to be a published novelist, which is a form of ambition, I suppose. Would it be cool if I made best-seller lists and won popularity contests like the Hugo? You betcha. But I'm not going to put in 200% all the time to reach these goals, which is how I understand the term "ambition" especially when paired with "hard work.")
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chiming
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Date: 2010-10-03 09:23 pm (UTC)From:Ambition is also iffy. For example, ambitious women (Hillary Clinton, say) are bitches or uppity, because of the existing societal gender norms.
I don't like that Americans value ambition so highly. We don't all have to be top of the class, most likely to succeed, 80-hour-week workaholics. We *shouldn't* be.
What's wrong with wanting to get a job that pays a decent wage (aka a living wage) and keep on keeping on? I don't want to be president of the board of pharmacy, or district manager of a chain, or any of that shit. I value my personal life and my creative time far more highly than prestige or whatever.
(I *do* want to be a published novelist, which is a form of ambition, I suppose. Would it be cool if I made best-seller lists and won popularity contests like the Hugo? You betcha. But I'm not going to put in 200% all the time to reach these goals, which is how I understand the term "ambition" especially when paired with "hard work.")