The Pursuit of Excellence and the Cost of Hyper Ambition

10min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

This chapter dives into the concept of hyper ambition and the pursuit of excellence. It explores the motivations behind this drive and discusses the potential costs and consequences. The speakers also reflect on their own ambition and doubt in relation to achieving challenging goals.

The Master Somm test is widely recognized as one of, if not the hardest test in the world. Only 273 people have passed it since it was incepted in 1969, also making it one of the rarest distinctions out there (<0.00001% of the world!)

In this episode, Steph and Cal discuss some of the hardest human feats, from athletics to intelligence to, and whether a healthy ambition can lie behind them.

They also discuss where they've taken things the furthest, and where they're still driven to do more.

This episode is not affiliated with Steph's work at a16z and is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.