Smith took direct aim at the 'greed is good' philosophy popularized by the 1987 film Wall Street and embraced by a generation of financiers. His rhetorical move was elegant: rather than arguing the morality of greed, he simply pointed out its insufficiency. Even if you accepted the premise that self-interest drives innovation and prosperity, it could not by itself build a functioning society or a meaningful life. He illustrated this with the story of Barry Diller at Paramount, who told the young Jeffrey Katzenberg never to fight for a project because it might have a market — only fight for projects he believed in. Smith noted that even this hard-nosed entertainment mogul understood that belief produces better work than calculation, because we work harder for things we believe in and because we are poor guessers about what will please others. Our internal compass, Smith argued, is a more reliable guide than market research.