What an idiotic essay.

What Osaka did has nothing to do with ambition, she did it because of the changing landscape of the media. Unlike the old days where athletes had to rely on press conferences to get their story out, nowadays they can directly broadcast their messages through their social media like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or whatever, and shape the message JUST THE WAY THEY WANT, instead of getting tricked by sketchy reporters to be quoted in uncontrollable ways.

The author starts from this completely incorrect assumption (based on her own personal bias) and then writes a whole article about how people "should not be ambitious", which is her true agenda. Osaka has nothing to do with this writer's agenda, the writer simply "used" Osaka as a tool for her own agenda.

Ironically, this kind of idiotic "journalism" is EXACTLY why people like Osaka decide to not deal with the press. There's nothing to gain by giving these people the power to put words in their mouth, just to write articles that they were already going to write, only using you as a narrative tool and often times hurting your reputation to achieve their agenda.

And no, ambition is NOT a cult. It's the main reason why the humanity was able to evolve as fast as they did, and it IS a virtue. It's not for everyone, but telling people to get rid of their professional ambition while writing that on the NYTimes to promote themselves (ambition) is the most hypocritical thing ever.

There are some good lessons and reminders here, not least to practice self care and mindfulness and to remember that "as much as you might love your work, work won’t love you back." Taking the focus off Osaka specifically though, ambition for some, including myself, isn't a dirty word. When I think of ambition i think of pursuing meaningful work, setting goals that force me to grow, etc. It's our society's emphasis on achieving success and earning more at all cost that's the real problem. Careerism is a trap and the pressure is real but it's not the same thing as ambition, even professional ambition.

Awful ideologically twisted article, it is not a revolt it is hypocrisy.

In the words of our elders, 'Give us Slack'