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Choose your status game wisely

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Re: Choose your status game wisely

#111

Post by ornornor »

ZYinMD wrote: post #69

It's a sad truth but for most of us, when it comes to "decide which status game to play", you're simply aiming for money no matter what you choose. Money is the overarching metric that already incorporates everything else. The "weightlifting status" or the "content creator status" mentioned in the article are just money status in disguise. Ask yourself: if you won a big lottery tomorrow, would you still keep doing wh…

> If the answer is no, then you've been playing the money game all along.

I’ve wondered about this for some time now. If I won the lottery, I would quit software engineering in a heartbeat.

But it’s not software engineering that I want to quit. I love writing software and having computers do my bidding automatically and elegantly.

What I loathe is all the BS around work, the posturing, the being told to drive the bus into the wall, being told when/if I can take my few weeks of PTO each year, and the spending my health and time making someone else richer.

If I could, I’d stop working today. It’s the working that kills me. And there is nothing I can do about it because without working I can’t pay my bills and I don’t think I’d be happy homeless or living on a shoestring. And software engineering is the best paying skill in my skill set, so I keep doing it. Even though it’s sucking my soul a little at a time.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#112

Post by codeyperson »

YawningAngel wrote: post #35
f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #32

Sometimes you see articles like this that insist that you have to play a status game of some kind etc etc. The hacker in me sees that as even more reason to look for examples of ways alleviate myself of such nonsense. If you read books like "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" you run across stories of him playing with Status games and poking fun at them. Though I'm sure one could argue Feynman had status games he play…

It seems strange to me to use a Nobel prize-winning physicist as an example of someone who didn't play status games

Feynman’s thoughts on the Nobel prize: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vvrdJXRe5KE

But I’m sure he secretly enjoyed the praise somewhat.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#113

Post by bobthechef »

throw0101a wrote: post #102
ZYinMD wrote: post #69

It's a sad truth but for most of us, when it comes to "decide which status game to play", you're simply aiming for money no matter what you choose. Money is the overarching metric that already incorporates everything else. The "weightlifting status" or the "content creator status" mentioned in the article are just money status in disguise. Ask yourself: if you won a big lottery tomorrow, would you still keep doing wh…

Thomas Aquinas several hundred years ago: "Article 1. Whether man's happiness consists in wealth?" * https://www.newadvent.org/summa/2002.htm He then goes on to consider honour, glory/fame, power, pleasure.

No post body was provided.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#114

Post by thomastjeffery »

skmurphy wrote: post #56

this reminded me of the "This is Water" commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College. Key graf: "In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing…

That's making the broad assumption that religion won't "eat you alive".

My personal experience deeply contradicts that.

My perspective is that atheism is not a lack of worship, but a lack of faith.

Faith requires you suspend critical thinking on a predetermined set of claims. Atheism, to me, is the rejection of faith; to direct critical thought to all claims.

Taking that to its conclusion, I worship critical thinking. I can't think of a better way to avoid being eaten.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#115

Post by abhaynayar »

pdonis wrote: post #61
sacrosancty wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Status usually represents having done some social good. The more good you do, the higher your status. If you look at it as a measure of how much good a person has done, then it might not seem so contemptable. Who did more good for more people - a hermit or Bill Gates?

> Status usually represents having done some social good. For whatever value of "good" applies in that particular social network, yes. But that value of "good" might not be anything we would call "good" in ordinary language. For example, Bill Gates does have high status, but he has it because he is rich, not because of the particular things he did that made him rich. Those things happened to be reasonably beneficial…

> how much so depends on your opinion of Windows

It depends on the version of Windows as well.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#116

Post by kstenerud »

Ugh. This is why I hate living among people: everyone is playing these stupid status games, and assumes that you are as well.

I was happiest living in the middle of nowhere, where the only status I had was being the weirdo who never speaks to anyone. Can't wait to get enough money together to retire that way again.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#117

Post by ggm »

0des wrote: post #110
fermentation wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is to develop enough of an ego for this event to never occur.

"Yeah well I'm 5'11 and a half ..."

This is literally my height. Repeating it, is about as effective as you'd expect, especially since my son topped six feet.

Sometimes you can spot sour grapes at 50 paces.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#118

Post by abhaynayar »

blymphony wrote: post #63

I'm surprised people in this thread are so opposed to trying to gain status. It took me too long to realize, but status, like money, is just a tool at your disposal in society. You can be too obsessed with status, just like you can be too obsessed with money, and use them for the "wrong" reasons. But there are things money lets you do that you couldn't do otherwise, like buying a home for your family or bootstrapping…

> Going to X school gives you an easier chance of getting into X company.

Unless the school and company are the same, it should be Y company.

> Knowing X amount of people

N would be a nice sounding variable here.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#119

Post by bobthechef »

throw0101a wrote: post #104
skmurphy wrote: post #56

this reminded me of the "This is Water" commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College. Key graf: "In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing…

(Saint) Thomas Aquinas several hundred years considered the main Earthly goods that many people hold up as the Highest Good as: wealth, honour, glory/fame, power, pleasure. * https://www.newadvent.org/summa/2002.htm See also Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics .

No post body was provided.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#120

Post by 0des »

ggm wrote: post #117
0des wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Yeah well I'm 5'11 and a half ..."

This is literally my height. Repeating it, is about as effective as you'd expect, especially since my son topped six feet. Sometimes you can spot sour grapes at 50 paces.

Just saying that's a concern that just doesn't resonate with those of us at or above tall height. The preening, the studying others, all these things necessary to be a cut above the other people with small type physique are actually communicating a signal in itself by making the gesture to that degree.

This is why models don't try to look or dress hot, they just are. Dressing nice is one thing but putting on the r/MFA uniform is a signal.

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