Welcome to the Future Perfect Podcast. Does your job feel pointless? Historian Rutger Bregman argues in his new book Moral Ambition that we should measure success not by salary or status but by how much good we do for others. “Don’t start out by asking, what’s my passion? Ask instead, how can I contribute most?” he says. Bregman urges us to tackle problems that are “sizable, solvable, and sorely overlooked,” a framework he calls moral ambition. This borrows from effective altruism’s call to focus on the “important, tractable, and neglected,” but he insists we don’t need perfection, just ambition. He warns against aimless careers and mindless scrolling, and urges us to “join a cult—or start your own” of changemakers, while staying open to criticism. So if you’re stuck in a meaningless job, consider this: what if your next career move aimed not at a fatter paycheck but at saving lives, protecting our planet, or strengthening democracy? Now that’s moral ambition.
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