TED talk

In his TED talk "A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success", Alain de Botton goes through many reasons for why you may be facing what he calls a "career crisis", anxieties about how successful you are. Throughout all of his reasons, what remained constant was his belief that Society clouds our perspective of achievement. For instance, he believes that because we are told that, through a lot of hard work, anyone can achieve anything, we are made to believe that if we become unsuccessful, we didn't try hard enough. In addition, he adds that due to us living in a meritocratic society, or at least one that seems like a meritocracy, we are meant to feel that if someone doesn't get to the top is thus meant to stay in the bottom and deserves to stay there. In this, he stresses that achievement is not always merited but rather, it can be accidental or random. Although I know most of what Botton was talking about in this TED talk, I still felt a little relieved to know that someone else agrees.