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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

#261

Post by SilasX »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #256
SilasX wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've started using the term "Mitt Romney unemployed" for "not working but no pressing need to", as a reference to his famous gaffe about "I know all about unemployment! Heck, I'm unemployed, myself!" https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/06/17/romney-ribbe...

Why not just stick to the classic "idle rich"?

It’s for when the person isn’t necessarily idle. I mean, in the namesake example, running for President is, like, the opposite of idle. It’s just not generating wage/salary income.

Edit: and even if “idle” in that sense is assumed to mean the previous sentence, that’s still counterintuitive and misleading.

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

#262

Post by sjg007 »

crocodiletears wrote: post #213
User23 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A successful entrepreneur is probably the highest status role possible in modern society (think Zuckerberg, Bezos, Gates) maybe even rivaling POTUS. Not even close. Regardless of the high esteem we may hold them in, the average person just sees them that you list as rich dorks. Compare and contrast with say Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio who, to use a stock phrase, men want to be and women want to be with.

I don't think actors and celebrities 'famous for being famous' are held in such high esteem anymore. I think that peaked in the oughties, and that the profession's renown's been in a slow decline since. This may in part be due to how replaceable and commoditized their industries have made them. The average person may lust after famous person 'x', or be jealous of their resources. They may even follow them as a sidesh…

Covid-19 really killed the celebritainment industry. They have to stay in the public mind to stay relevant. A movie will have a press push, some celebrities need scandals. The only celebrity we hear about consistently now is POTUS... and he is sort of a black hole in his own universe.

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

#263

Post by spacemanmatt »

tokai wrote: post #27
spacemanmatt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one I know who could qualify for a UBI has any desire to spend their life on a lark. They all experience an urgency that seems like it would be foreign to you.

>No one I know who could qualify for a UBI You know the U is for universal right?

Yeeeaaaah and I truly find that people at/near my income don't need any more money, and I will always speak from that perspective.

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

#264

Post by sjg007 »

bluedays wrote: post #8

Yeah, 33 years old, haven't accomplished much, went into school to start a degree in programming, still low status and can't find a job anywhere. I'm not sure willingness is the word for this. All I feel is bitterness. I'm not sure if this is me being reflective because it's my birthday today or what, but I'm so fucking sick of working so hard to get nowhere.

Happy Birthday!

SQA is the easiest entry level job to get if you are technical. Get one of those and program your way to the top. Replace yourself with a program. Just keep programming and getting better.

The competition is intense. I understand the feeling. Helping others will help you. Maybe offer to help out at the local high school teaching programming to the kids. A lot of parents wants their kid to code.

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

#265

Post by justin66 »

nitrogen wrote: post #209
justin66 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Folks in the status professions (banking, law,..) often tell me they want to become an entrepreneur. I always tell them, you wont do it. They attended the right school, joined the right firm, attained that corner office. As a founder they would give up all that, and their family and friends will tell them that they've made a massive mistake, for years, while it appears that nothing is happening. > Then they sheepis…

There's a time and a place for it, but I feel like much stronger friendships are formed by people who can handle giving and receiving a bit of negativity / harsh reality now and then. The superficiality of modern positivity obsession is a source of a lot of problems, because people don't have a tight-knit network who will be there for each other through thick and thin.

The phrase I always tell them, you wont do it specifically doesn't strike me as the words of the helpful, skeptical voice of reason, but perhaps I'm reading too much into a careless phrasing. It sounds to me like the words of a superior know-it-all douchebag, not the hard-nosed, skeptical advice of a worthwhile friend. YMMV.

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

#266

Post by gamblor956 »

mcguire wrote: post #234
gamblor956 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's ironic because most of the tech founders I meet these days do it for the status, and just pretend to be entrepreneurs.

Q: What do you call the founder and CEO of a 1-2 person company that failed and went bankrupt? A: Founder and CEO.

Most people would call them unemployed.

Calling oneself Founder and CEO doesn't have much, if any, cachet outside of the tech world, since on its own it doesn't mean anything. What matters is what you actually did at the failed company.

You know what a plumber in charge of a plumbing company calls himself?

A plumber.

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

#267

Post by tucif »

_qulr wrote: post #9

This is nothing more than a month old tweet from some random person with generic advice and zero empirical evidence to back it up. Why is this even on Hacker News?

Recently a lot of tweets in the front page, 5 tweets on the frontpage on the same day even just last week[1]

Can't help but think hn now showing the username for some domains including twitter is increasing the submissions somehow? Or maybe people just engage more in discussion around tweets lately.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2020-10-15

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

#268

Post by User23 »

jdmoreira wrote: post #221
User23 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jack Nicholson comes to mind. And Mick Jagger is ugly as sin and that doesn’t hurt his status.

I'm sorry but none of them are even remotely classifiable as ugly. Have you seen photos of younger Mick Jagger? Young Mick Jagger could be a successful female model in 2020

It's interesting you should mention that, because successful female models are orders of magnitude lower status today than they were 25 years ago. Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, and Tyra Banks, to name a few, were massively high status, on the level of professional athletes and movie stars. Nowadays, not so much.

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

#269

Post by User23 »

scythe wrote: post #186
User23 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A successful entrepreneur is probably the highest status role possible in modern society (think Zuckerberg, Bezos, Gates) maybe even rivaling POTUS. Not even close. Regardless of the high esteem we may hold them in, the average person just sees them that you list as rich dorks. Compare and contrast with say Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio who, to use a stock phrase, men want to be and women want to be with.

>the average person just sees them that you list as rich dorks. gp has only listed tech entrepreneurs. Shocking as it may seem to us, the tech industry doesn't have a stellar reputation in some parts of the US/world. However we also have e.g. Donald Trump who ran on his identity as a "businessman" (however farcical), Elon Musk, or Oprah ( http://blackeconomics.co.uk/wp/oprahs-empire/ ), all appealing to different sor…

Trump ran on his identity as Trump. The man successfully "built his personal brand" before that was even a thing. I don't know of an earlier example of "famous for being famous" either. He really is in a class by himself and he objectively proved that by winning the Presidency of the United States. One can actively dislike his personality and policies while still being honest enough to acknowledge his cultural impact.

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

#270

Post by namelosw »

It makes sense to if you are in a moderate or high status white-collar and seriously thinking about pursuing your own lifetime-goal. You have to give up the 'easy' way of life you currently have to trade for some success rate for your own goal.

To practice this and it makes more sense. I recently quit my decent job despite I was doing great. I spent a while to fully-convince myself, and I realize I don't really care about status, and wasn't feeling I was achieving anything. But I live in a relatively judgemental country. When I communicate this idea with my collegues many wouldn't understand it. When I communicate with my parent I recieve immediate objection, then I receive quit some interruptive phone calls from them telling me go back to work. In practice it take more to be low-status.

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