Wired

Kevin Kelly: the cost of greatness is being extreme

On David Perell's podcast, Kevin Kelly (Wired co-founder, author of '1,000 True Fans') said that to have his eclectic, gadfly life he had to give up on greatness, because greatness requires a level of extremeness he never wanted. He defined greatness as being remembered by non-family more than a generation later.

“He asked him something like, like, what's been the cost of being Kevin Kelly? Like, what have you given up to be Kevin Kelly the way you, the way you have? And Kevin's like, you know, that's a great question. To have this life I have, I had to give up on greatness. And he goes, what do you mean? And he goes, well, I think the cost of greatness is some level of being extreme. And I just never wanted to be extreme. I didn't want the cost of extreme.”