A philosopher’s argument against the cult of achievement | Zena Hitz: Full Interview

1. 

   @No0utsidetext

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   Love this. Except talking about Malcom X in a good way

2. 

   @QuestionAuthority2026

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   Just go to school and stop being lazy.

3. 

   @GeorgeBrata

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   "Don't sell your sun to buy candles"

4. 

   @paladinsorcerer67

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   First, the anxiety that comes with over-thinking in solitude can lead to deep thought, but also to the distastefulness of anxiety. A person can feel that very few others can understand the thoughts that the person is having, such that they feel isolated. This happens when a person doesnt have a rich life outside of work. Friends and family make life enjoyable, which is a strong protection from anxiety and fear of dealing with negative people due to competition and judgement. Chastising oneself to meet ones own expectations is fine so far as it is useful toward achieveing a goal of self respect, but taken too far out of zeal can be debilitating. Form boundaries, leave work at work, and forgive yourself for not being the perfect human. Adopting a mask in order to navigate tricky social situations is necessary but also dont take that too seriously. Nurture empathy and humor so that you can supplment maskish behavior with good naturedness. But also cultivate deep thought. Second, talking to others can seem lengthy but only take a few minutes to accomplish. Being lost in thought work can seem short but when one checks a clock they can see that hours have passed. The return on investment of thought work can sometimes seem like not enough, if it means your life ticking by. Balance "thought work" with your "wholesome work" so that you can regain your hold on life. Dont let it pass you by.

5. 

   @paladinsorcerer67

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   Billionaires dont respect the liberal arts because it doesnt make them money. They dont want to pay for your enlightenment. Start planning your life around enlightenment and become self sufficient so that they cant take away your aspirations to suit theirs.

6. 

   @doyle6000

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   Thanks

7. 

   @alecharper515

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   Yes. Important message. Loved St. John's College. Took my son there to learn to fence at that wonderful gymnasium. Wish that I had read the 100 books… well, I've read some. My son should have gone there as well. It would have suited him well. Keep at it, professor.

8. 

   @chrisv257

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   Ambition is one of the subtlest tricks of the ego thinking happiness lies somewhere in the future, anywhere but now. It is a carrot that is always just a little out of reach.

   Ambition fueled by the creative, expressive quality of who we are actually are at our core is a completely different story. The funny paradox is is that some of humanity’s more impressive art, inventions, idea’s, etc were born from this type of ambition. Think of the artist who paints all day knowing nobody will ever view their work but maybe a friend or two but still pours their soul into it.

   Something to ponder I guess!

9. 

   @gillscorner794

   July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

   It's always wonderful when someone rationally explains what your gut feel has been telling you for many years. I'm glad that I have been heading in this direction for some time now.

10. 

    @saeedseify2131

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Hi I'm Iranian and here is war I'm so depress please help me 😢😢😢

11. 

    @JoeBringm

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Brilliant. Loved it.

12. 

    @JonGiuliani

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    You privatised education, of course it collapsed! Vote against this at your next election

13. 

    @moseaesaias1222

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    21:35 She gets it. “Learning as information retrieval.” Brilliant.

14. 

    @quartytypo

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Real achievement is something accomplished that nobody else sees.

15. 

    @PrimalEarth

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Philosophy hones ones critical thinking skills which engenders more control over ones life.

16. 

    @xelasomar4614

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Seems like a convoluted explanation. To me an "intellectual life" is just trying to get a better understanding of reality, of the world we live in, through the acquisition of knowledge from the different perspectives and forms of human perception available, and when I can, to better this world. Not to wear it as a jewel or crown or some sort of status.

17. 

    @JB2026ftu

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    It is interesting but it is not one or the other. I'm an Economist but have always had an interest in philosophy and study and read a lot. Yet a few hours of my day I work hard with horses. The happiness I get from riding is beyond description.

18. 

    @foniotinster

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    so good ❤️

19. 

    @TwoDotsOnAPage

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    That’s an odd perspective she has about the nature of language. I’m not sure where she arrived at that. Paint the picture in your mind or use your words to describe the chair that’s there and also is not there. Heck, try to even assert that Superman doesn’t exist by presenting Superman as necessarily having no requirements as to what’s unique to Superman.

    Language is built (and so has corrupted a lot of our mind) to serve the material. What nouns do we even have to address the immaterial? And even in those (concept, ethereal), to pretend they’re not operating in reverence and reference to the material is likely a losing game. No-thing. Im-material. De-coherence. Language isn’t built for what she’s describing. It operates in sevice to the real. That’s why every single LLM that’s ever been built and will ever be built espouses the ideologies of determinism and materialism. Because when you’re BUILT on language, you operate subservient to it.

    Go ahead and try to wipe off the proverbial “grease” of the real in your mind using language. You’ll fail. It’s only in the absence of language where those truisms sit. Even Lovecraft knew that. And he would know better than most.

20. 

    @russ.thebuss

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Understanding that identities are not permanent can really help an individual

21. 

    @gretionwaters

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Excuse me ma'am… Working people are not getting paid enough by their employers.. Many people have multiple jobs… Perhaps a part of this collapse is related to our even having a glimmer of time to BE human. We absolutely must address the disastrous consequences of allowing an oligarchy to take control of our society. Poverty is practically enforced on people , and there are serious consequences.

22. 

    @vazzaroth

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    I have often thought that those who push for a very, very "just" world in everyday community often don't realize that they are establishing a standard primarily. If we center rightfulness around being socially acceptable, using the right words, regarding individual people with traits in a very specific, "one true" way… all you are doing is making a world that benefits those that are most socially intelligent enough to devote mental resources and natural gifts towards the book of correct actions. Memorization. Often, I find these people espousing neurodiversity values loudly, which I strongly believe in, yet don't seem to realize that by punishing those that make mistakes… ANY ANYWHERE that makes social mistakes of ANY kind, you are creating a world that runs on a system that automatically exiles many who are unable to 'keep up' with these norms or may be unable to memorize the rightness of thought demanded by their supposed advocates.

23. 

    @janelast5177

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Very enriching Thanks

24. 

    @lokiandthortraveltheworld

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    👏🏻

25. 

    @theeucpsychiatrist

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Anecdotally, I can say that not everybody has a rich intellectual life, at least not the way Zena describes it. Her idea of intellectualism is more like a form of independent thinking that involves self-reflection, curiosity, and the ability to sit with uncertainty. It is a very Western and individualistic idea, which other cultures may not appreciate as much.

    As a psychiatrist, people approach me all the time with all sorts of questions ranging from the consequential to the banal. They ask me if they should leave their marriage, quit their jobs, move to another country, call in sick, brush their teeth, eat certain foods, cross the street, tie their shoelaces, etc. They want to know if they are 'normal', even though there isn't such a thing. They want me to give them answers I don't have. They want to outsource the guilt of decision-making. They want me to tell them what to do.

    The cult of achievement tells people what is normal, what to do, and assumes that the answers to life's greatest questions are self-evident. You find this in every institution, whether it's politics, religion, or academia. This could be a natural way humans organise themselves in social groups, such that there will always be people who want others to tell them what to do, and, likewise, there will always be independent thinkers. The question is: who feels more miserable?

    When I think of a snail, I can imagine that it feels pain if I sprinkle some salt on its body, but it probably doesn't suffer from it the way humans do. Suffering is a higher-order cognition that results from pain because it involves asking why it happens, how long it will persist, and what life will look like in the future. Along those lines of thought, there are bound to be humans who are more likely to engage in this higher-order thinking, whereas others less so. I'd like to think of myself as an intellectual because I love drowning myself in contemplation, but I'm also envious of those who are seemingly thoughtless and carefree. They take instructions very well, have very little guilt, and sleep soundly at night.

26. 

    @winstonoboogie2424

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    The greatest assets of the world are unknown. Nor is the world interested in knowing them.

27. 

    @artesanous

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    So much trauma!

28. 

    @RoyAlvarezLuna

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    The best thing I did was not pay attention in school.
    I started reading very early in life, no one helped, I just started.
    When I started going to school, I saw the bs from the gate.
    I laughed at teachers, they got mad, I questioned teachers, and they got mad. Eventually they left me alone because there’s a folder that follows you as you go from grade to grade, and each teacher reads it and knows how to teach you or to not waste their time trying to teach you. They stopped wasting their time around 5th grade. They literally told me I wouldn’t need math😂 cause I was going to be a laborer, probably a garbage man. They actually said this to me directly, in the late 1970’s.
    I love language. Languages. I love learning and I didn’t need an educator to teach me, I needed adults to guide me in my quest for understanding. None existed in my life but the occasional English teacher or art teacher that saw the potential I had, and encouraged me to keep creating, and keep writing.
    Even so, the best thing I did in school was not pay attention.
    I have started 4 businesses, sold 3, closed 1. I’m on my 5th and I plan on making it so profitable, that I can retire by the time I’m 60, I’m 50 now. There’s not a single teacher or school that I have to thank or acknowledge as helping me and guiding me in my successes. I have the world in general to thank, that we write and teach what we learned, and we can learn from. Mankind in general is my teacher. I love to think, I love to learn, I love developing creative solutions for work and life. I pay attention to life.
    I pay attention to living.

29. 

    @davidhoracek6758

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    "Activities that have an end in themselves" is just masturbation. That you're getting yourself off through contemplation doesn't really change anything essential. I hope that what capable people choose to do will not be for the sake of the activity itself, but for the sake of something important and external – at adding more good into the universe. The reason why you need to be subtle and smart and contemplative is that it's really hard to figure out what ends are worth aiming at. That's the whole point of contemplating – to give yourself a chance to avoid being brainwashed by the current thing, or some thing that sounds plausible but doesn't stand up under scrutiny.

30. 

    @maitai8997

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Santa Fe by far the better campus

31. 

    @DaveReynolds-y3v

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    It seems to me that an intellectual life is tied to our natural inclination toward reason and rationalization. And rationalization has its own Achilles heal. It can be the means of revelation while at the same time has the capacity to distort. And it's not apparent which side of the line you may be on. Because our thoughts are our creations and we have a tendency to fall in love with the things we create. (Perhaps a bit like this post? Or Dr. Frankenstein. )

32. 

    @BryanWhys

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    K-12 World Philosophy, Logic, and Reason Courses
    Thanks,
    Bryan

33. 

    @Eyesayah

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Ai exchange: A thought arose that the achievement orientation may put a person into a position where it's easy for them to believe that they're too good for something. They're too good to have to face something, to have to undertake something, that these things are left to others.

    Yes. Achievement can become a way of purchasing exemption.

    A person begins by doing well, but gradually converts that into a claim: because I have succeeded, certain burdens, indignities, ordinary duties, or difficult truths should no longer apply to me. The achievement is no longer merely something accomplished; it becomes evidence of rank.

    That can show itself in small ways—being too important to clean up, apologize, wait, listen, or deal with an unpleasant person—and in larger ways, such as believing that risk, sacrifice, or accountability properly belong to people lower down.

    The danger is that “I have done well” quietly becomes “I am above this.” Then achievement, which might have enlarged a person’s capacities, instead narrows the range of life he is willing to enter.

    Being well may require almost the opposite disposition: the capacity to face what is beneath one’s dignity only in the false sense—mess, dependence, embarrassment, grief, menial work, moral failure—and discover that none of it is actually beneath one’s humanity.

34. 

    @ZonarFubarski

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    You haven’t lived until you’ve been banished to the scullery in a remote corner of the galley on a giant submarine tender to wrestle with the giant pots the cooks burnt the ship out of cooking spaghetti sauce for one thousand sailors at Polaris Point in Guam where the nuke boats are rafted out from the tender. And that after impulsively enlisting in the regular navy because you so detested student teaching as to leap to the conclusion that your BS ED was a useless degree in babysitting.

35. 

    @sebs3524

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    wonderful video, thank you

36. 

    @avisolomo

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    What an inspiring person!

37. 

    @deconsistance

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Isn't she basically saying that the state of our society keeps young people in a near constant state of fight or flight? This is so fucking detrimental to our development, on all fronts. Also, children have the right to grow up in peace. I hate modern society man

38. 

    @marse7092

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    The first half of the talk is pretty good and I’m sympathetic to her view overall. However, I find Hitz’ use of Einstein as an example shallow and contradictory, sounding like a self-help author. If what’s valuable is the work itself, not so much about achievement/success, why singling out the most famous/successful physicist of all time. And mentioning Darwin, only the most famous/successful biologist of all time.

    And 47:03 is such a strange comment about hoping to break the pedestal of intellectuals. Outside of academia, intellectuals are not really respected, on a pedestal in most English speaking countries lol. Does Hitz actually talk to blue-collar workers, and “ordinary” people? The majority of people these days would rather be rich/famous, and think that academics are book smart nerds who don’t understand the real world.

39. 

    @deconsistance

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Wait, should we stop thinking so damn much, or should we start thinking about what we really want? Either way, it's a lovely video!

40. 

    @AnthonyA1111

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    Bro', nobody cares about a humanities professor, except for humanities professors, maybe. I say this as a humanities professor.

41. 

    @jonnyo1802

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    I keep seeing Robert De Niro

42. 

    @Furiosa-m4b

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    People like her give me hope for humanity.

43. 

    @maybeidontknowpodcast

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    I've noticed all the people preaching against achievement and striving and status are famous professors, writers, and philosophers. Hard to take them seriously.

44. 

    @AllTheFasteners

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    The point about people preferring to study the pragmatic option is surely a better thing for society at large, the formal pursuit of less applicable study is rather self-indulgent and was historically often pursued by those with more comfortable backgrounds who were less worried about making a living for themselves or are content to be supported by others. That being said, the study of philosophy and other less vocational things has often lead to profound results (e.g. democracy). However, these results are so fleetingly rare that having large swathes of your young population formally studying them is perhaps not the best use of society's resources and time. Personally I find philosophy and several non-useful academic pursuits very rewarding, but I wouldn't advocate trying to make a living out of them.

45. 

    @GOLDY1SIDDHARTHA8CHAKRANEY

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    MOSTLY ALL THE DEGREE HOLDERS LOSES THEIR MOSTLY MEMORY KNOWLEDGE OF WHEN THEY HOLD THE DEGREE AFTER SOME TIME WHILE KEEP HOLDING THE FALSE EGO OF I AM A BIG ULLU KA PATTHA OF THIS FALSE HOOD AND NOW BLUFF OTHWR IGNORANT THAN ME BLOODY FOOLS

46. 

    @martinlund7987

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    as a molecular biologist, I can only say biology does fight back and it does not fight fair.

    In my reading of working class self improvement movements outside the anglo saxon tradition as well, it is associated with the idea of a better overall future.
    I think it will be a hard sell in a situation like the US where the Gini coefficient is not exactly becoming smaller.

47. 

    @Furiosa-m4b

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    7:34!! 🫵 Exactly! 💯💯💯

48. 

    @tawfikelgazzar4127

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    I LOVE THIS 💚 Thank you 🙏🏽

49. 

    @bethanylaurenreads

    July 13, 2026 at 5:17 am

    I LOVED her book!!!

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