Why does it seem better to be a pauper who becomes a king rather than a king who becomes a pauper even when each life contains an equivalent sum of goods to the other? Many argue that only the pauper-to-king life can be told as a redemption story and that it is good for you to live a redemption story. This paper calls that explanation into question and proposes an alternative: upward-trending lives reveal growth. I argue that growth is a valuable feature of a life, that redemption is not, and that growth explains intuitions cited in favor of redemption.

中文翻译：

---

成长与人生的形状

为什么成为一个成为国王的穷人似乎比一个成为穷人的国王更好，即使每个生命都包含与另一个生命相等的物品？许多人争辩说，只有从穷困潦倒的生活才能被当作一个救赎故事来讲述，而过一个救赎故事对你有好处。本文质疑这种解释并提出了另一种选择：上升趋势的生活揭示了增长。我认为成长是生命的宝贵特征，而救赎不是，而成长解释了支持救赎的直觉。