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Prioritize Your Own Needs, Desires, and Wants Over Others
My thought:
To maximize your impact and change in the world, embrace MAXIMUM SELFISHNESS, and barbell 'maximum altruism' on the other end.
Why prioritize yourself?
My thought is this:
We want to avoid pettiness and resentment in life.
Often when we spend our entire lives devoting it to others (instead of focusing on our own self-development), we start to build hidden resentment towards others.
Why not posit yourself as an end into yourself?
Why are we not allowed to posit ourselves as an end unto ourselves?
Well -- Christian/Utilitarian morality says:
Thou shalt become a useful instrument for the masses and others.
And also in almost all cultures in the world, the notion of being 'selfish' is synonymous with 'evil'.
Why is this? Well-- in the past (when there was a limited pie, zero-sum society), any benefit you gave yourself was a HIDDEN DOWNSIDE to others. For example if I have a pizza with 12 slices and I eat 6 slices, that means 6 fewer slices for my community or family. But in today's world with infinite technology and effectively infinite/free food, these old-school notions of 'selfish' being 'evil' is not a good one.
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