How should Nietzsche’s “Seek zeros!” aphorism in Twilight of the Idols be interpreted?
I’m trying to understand Nietzsche’s aphorism from Twilight of the Idols, “Maxims and Arrows”:
“What? You seek? You would like to multiply yourself tenfold, a hundredfold? You seek followers? — Seek zeros!”
Original German:
“Was? du suchst? du möchtest dich verzehnfachen, verhundertfachen? du suchst Anhänger? — Suche Nullen!”
I came across two different interpretations, and I’m not sure which one is more plausible.
The first interpretation was generated by ChatGPT, and I found it somewhat suspicious because I could not find other authors or commentators explaining the aphorism this way. According to that reading, Nietzsche is making a mathematical pun: if you want to multiply yourself by ten or a hundred, you add zeros. So “followers” are compared to zeros because they increase your apparent size or public importance, but do not add any real value of their own. In this interpretation, Nietzsche is criticizing people who seek disciples, followers, or masses of supporters. The point would be that wanting many followers is not a sign of greatness; it may only mean that one has gathered enough “zeros” around oneself.
The second interpretation I found, from a Reddit comment, reads the aphorism differently. According to this view, Nietzsche is encouraging us not to identify with a collective, political party, project, or mass ideology. On this reading, Nietzsche values individual difference, uniqueness, originality of thought, and personally shaped worldviews over mass movements of thought and action. The “zero” here would not simply mean a worthless follower, but rather a unique person whose individuality cannot be reproduced by multiplication, propaganda, or ideological conformity. In short, this interpretation sees Nietzsche as encouraging us to engage with unique, independent thinkers or personalities, and to form our own identities in confrontation with such individuals rather than becoming part of a collective ideology.
My question is: which of these interpretations is closer to what Nietzsche likely meant in this aphorism?
More specifically:
- Does “Nullen” here most naturally mean “worthless people,” “nonentities,” or “zeros” in the mathematical sense of adding zeros to multiply a number?
- Are there any serious Nietzsche commentators who discuss this specific aphorism?
Thanks in advance