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Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

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Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#31

Post by agumonkey »

onion2k wrote: post #2

Many, many more people work at things other people think are silly and insignificant only to discover that thing is silly and insignificant and then they give up. Occasionally the opposite happens and the person succeeds. If you only look at the successes it probably looks like a willingness to be low-status is a marker for success, but it really isn't. It tells you nothing of the future outcome. The only thing it pr…

I think there's a special talent into feeling insignificant activities and to quickly enough turn them into 'added value'.

Otherwise yeah you can pack burgers every day and stay at that level if you want. But some will make more, find more customers, more venues, new ideas. The growth spirit maybe ? I don't know.

Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#32

Post by quadrifoliate »

This can be differently phrased as "privilege to be low-status".

If you are an underrepresented minority and spend years working in a low-status position, the likelihood of a payoff for you is much lesser than it is for someone who typically doesn't experience discrimination based on their age, race, or gender. The downside for spending those years for some people is much higher than others.

A social safety net can de-risk this somewhat, but the US doesn't have a meaningful one.

So really, the "willingness to be low-status" often just means "coming from a background that's high-status enough that being low-status for a few years will not significantly damage their financial prospects".

Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#33

Post by m_eiman »

im3w1l wrote: post #24
roenxi wrote: post #7

The more-correct observation is that any well-understood or easy path to becoming high status will be shut down. Most people are not high status, and want to be. It follows that the path has to be either risky, or difficult to comprehend. If hard work were enough, we'd all be in charge. Lots of hard workers out there.

> the path has to be either risky, or difficult to comprehend. Or require being born with a rare gift or trait.

Such as "the right parents", which in many cases is a pretty efficient gate keeper.

Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#34

Post by TheButlerian »

fredley wrote: post #28

I know people blocked by this. Usually they're people who had an easy time at expensive schools, they now can't accept that they're anything other than brilliant and deserve the top jobs based on their raw 'talent' alone. Those who can work their way up from the unglamorous positions at the bottom are the ones doing well, and often leapfrog those with an easier starting position due to it.

Usually the ones at the expensive schools have the connections go get well paid managerial jobs and have the hard workers break their backs for them.

Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#36

Post by maxerickson »

onion2k wrote: post #2

Many, many more people work at things other people think are silly and insignificant only to discover that thing is silly and insignificant and then they give up. Occasionally the opposite happens and the person succeeds. If you only look at the successes it probably looks like a willingness to be low-status is a marker for success, but it really isn't. It tells you nothing of the future outcome. The only thing it pr…

It's not what the tweet is saying, but being willing to admit you got something wrong is very valuable, and some people refuse to do it for (more or less) status reasons.

Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#37

Post by carierx1 »

m_eiman wrote: post #33
im3w1l wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the path has to be either risky, or difficult to comprehend. Or require being born with a rare gift or trait.

Such as "the right parents", which in many cases is a pretty efficient gate keeper.

Or just better genetics.

Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#38

Post by jkinudsjknds »

maxerickson wrote: post #36
onion2k wrote: post #2

Many, many more people work at things other people think are silly and insignificant only to discover that thing is silly and insignificant and then they give up. Occasionally the opposite happens and the person succeeds. If you only look at the successes it probably looks like a willingness to be low-status is a marker for success, but it really isn't. It tells you nothing of the future outcome. The only thing it pr…

It's not what the tweet is saying, but being willing to admit you got something wrong is very valuable, and some people refuse to do it for (more or less) status reasons.

My anecdata would suggest that refusing to acknowledge fault and instead reframing the context is a far more effective strategy, and yet neither are good predictors of success.

Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#39

Post by dahfizz »

alextheparrot wrote: post #26
msandford wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably necessary but not sufficient. If you can't deal with being low status you won't get through the grind and the suck. But there are a million grinds that don't go anywhere. Look at what it takes to level up a character.

The necessary condition seems to be invalidated by the “family-tradition” narrative where someone goes directly from son of a 4* general to becoming a 2* general as long as they don’t mess up too badly. For them, their default amount of status can lead to success as long as they don’t put too many chips on the wrong games. I’m not actually sure how true that is in practice, but the stickiness of income bracket and le…

Income brackets are not as sticky as you might think[1]. If you are in the second or third quintile, you are more likely to move income quintiles than stay where you are over ten years.

If you are in the bottom quintile, you only have a 64% chance of staying there. That's not incredible, but it does make you question the "inescapable poverty" narrative when a full 1/3 of impoverished people escape it every decade.

Across every income quintile, you are more likely to die richer than your father[2].

[1] https://www.clevelandfed.org/en/newsroom-and-events/publicat...

[2] https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economi...

Re: Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-status

#40

Post by iagovar »

onion2k wrote: post #2

Many, many more people work at things other people think are silly and insignificant only to discover that thing is silly and insignificant and then they give up. Occasionally the opposite happens and the person succeeds. If you only look at the successes it probably looks like a willingness to be low-status is a marker for success, but it really isn't. It tells you nothing of the future outcome. The only thing it pr…

This is the correct answer.
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