tyrael71
Given that you are a person who is highly-qualified to answer, I am genuinely curious why do you think that is? Reimplementing algorithms from scratch is an efficient way to learn, understand the underlying concepts and attempt improvements in a research context.
I do not want in any way to sound critical and am genuinely curious about the dynamics of why people would find this interesting given it's reduced complexity.
> 'college dropout' featured in nearly every early article. It became something of a compliment after a bit though and helped them stand out somehow.
'Standing out' is irrelevant in this context unless your business is entirely based on you being a famous figure in the press. Gates and Jobs are famous because of the incredible companies they built, not the other way around. The press needed to paint a story, so they went with the college dropout narrative. However their success, and the success of every company/founder is entirely independent of founder social validation.
These terms are much more abstract than people think. The underlying denominator should be purpose, or rather definiteness of purpose. What I mean by that is, the arbiter of whether you should invest resources in your 'ambition' or your 'relationships' is the purpose with which you choose to live. If my self-determination and calling is to colonize mars and build self-driving cars to better humanity, I will position myself to do so, be it through relationships or allocation of other resources.
The problem is most people do not have a purpose, ambition can be interpreted both ways, as with everything. If I am defined by egotism and vanity, I might do almost anything I can to feed my vices, whether by buying cars, houses or spending money poorly. People would characterize me as ambitious, and they would be right, but it would be irrelevant, my purpose is built on a flawed foundation, a psychological need to prove myself to others.
TL;DR: We shouldn't be comparing terms without considering the purpose through which we choose our everyday actions.