Ayodeji, you bring an interesting perspective! I always enjoy reading your articles.

It’s true that we are wired to seek status and achievement, but we also have a tendency to procrastinate, build negative habits, and wrestle with unpleasant thoughts, among other things. The human being is complex and multi-faceted. The status-seeking nature of human beings is only one aspect. It may really be what kind of person you are and what kind of society you live in that determines whether you take this nature to extremes or not. In Western society, many tend to take it to extremes because of the way they’re socialized from an early age to prioritize achievement. If this nature is taken to the extremes, people can seriously become miserable trying to achieve something beyond themselves. I think there’s a fine line between seeking achievement because you want financial freedom or you want to express yourself, and seeking achievement because you want status and approval which can be detrimental. Although many people may seek both, prioritizing one over the other can make a difference. Human nature shifts in synchronization with how societies shift and change. It’s not only evolutionary biology that’s causing us to act in the ways we do.