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Choose your status game wisely

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Re: Choose your status game wisely

#211

Post by hcho »

giantg2 wrote: post #208
trh0awayman wrote: post #195

I think it's interesting how different people view status, like the "Harvard Professor or Homeless guy?" quiz that used to get passed around. I grew up in one of the last WASP strongholds in the US and the more money you had, the smaller the house you lived in (up to a point). People could afford insanely expensive cars, but would buy tasteful ones instead (excepting kids). Most people wouldn't be caught dead in a Ra…

What is WASP? My search results seem to have a lot of noise, like wasps, the insects.

white anglo-saxon protestant. old money types in US context.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#212

Post by [deleted] »

giantg2 wrote: post #208
trh0awayman wrote: post #195

I think it's interesting how different people view status, like the "Harvard Professor or Homeless guy?" quiz that used to get passed around. I grew up in one of the last WASP strongholds in the US and the more money you had, the smaller the house you lived in (up to a point). People could afford insanely expensive cars, but would buy tasteful ones instead (excepting kids). Most people wouldn't be caught dead in a Ra…

What is WASP? My search results seem to have a lot of noise, like wasps, the insects.

[deleted]

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#213

Post by darkerside »

klyrs wrote: post #160
darkerside wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People make money by providing value to other people. The people who provide the most perceived value have the most money. It is a signifier of status whether you like it or not. Most people who make money are providing a service to many people, or to someone else with a lot of money (who therefore provided value previously). Care to provide a counterexample?

Bain Capitol is a classic example. They bought companies, sold off their assets, wrote themselves huge bonuses, bankrupted the companies, and wrote them off as losses to avoid paying taxes on any of the above. They made their money by destroying value, not providing any. And then there's multigenerational wealth. Rich brats don't provide intrinsic value, but they're born rich. They don't get that way by providing val…

I remember the hysteria about vulture capitalism. Even vultures play a valuable role in their ecosystem. Companies don't sell themselves to a private equity shop because they are thriving and healthy. If they were more valuable in parts than their sum, it says something about the company.

Can't say much about the hypothetical wealth stealing since it's completely hypothetical.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#214

Post by giantg2 »

kromem wrote: post #177
angarg12 wrote: post #59

Not sure how this will sit with the HN crowd, but a couple of years back I got into menswear, and I derive some pleasure from being the "best dressed guy" at the office. Beyond personal opinions on that particular hobby, I can confirm first hand that living at the intersection of two or more personas (e.g. a programmer that dresses well) brings a peculiar sense of joy. I might no have much status in either of those c…

My career advice to nearly everyone starting out these days is to bring different professional interests together if they have more than one. There's thousands of specialists in most fields, but not nearly as many generalists or people who can walk in two interconnected worlds. Finding a niche can be very valuable to oneself and others. One way to carve that out is by going deeper than one's peers in a specialization…

"There's thousands of specialists in most fields, but not nearly as many generalists or people who can walk in two interconnected worlds."

Ugh, my advice is the opposite. You'll never really fit in if you're in two worlds. Most places don't want generalists. They want specialists who can crank out code quickly without asking too many questions.

In my experience, if you have too much business acumen, you end up asking questions that the business people can't answer, or don't want to answer. Things about business process flow, legal review, corporate strategy, and general process efficiency/improvement. Then they hate you for it, or at least think you're too "head in the clouds".

I have a fair chunk of knowledge in many diverse domains. Besides people occasionally finding one interesting (like people at work finding it interesting that I forage for mushrooms), they don't benefit me at all. In fact, I believe it hurts me (career wise).

I'm at the point where people (managers mostly) are starting to view me negatively. "What's this guy doing as a midlevel after 10 years here and a masters degree?", type of stuff.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#215

Post by giantg2 »

exdsq wrote: post #176
angarg12 wrote: post #59

Not sure how this will sit with the HN crowd, but a couple of years back I got into menswear, and I derive some pleasure from being the "best dressed guy" at the office. Beyond personal opinions on that particular hobby, I can confirm first hand that living at the intersection of two or more personas (e.g. a programmer that dresses well) brings a peculiar sense of joy. I might no have much status in either of those c…

Worked with a guy who wore a suit to the office as a 2-year experience dev and he was always taken into client meetings last minute when they needed someone. Helped his career a fair bit I think!

Opposite here. My office had people wearing dress pants and dress or polo shirts. I decided to add a tie. I was taken aside and told not to do that since it made me seem out of touch with the culture. Seemed like a pretty small step up from the based line to me. So much for dress for the job you want, or next job up BS...

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#216

Post by giantg2 »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #167
chadcmulligan wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have observed multiple times if I 'suit up' at work it's like I'm wearing a shield, it's a strange game. It has to be a good suit though, naturally enough. Edit: this is when dealing with the business folk that is, techies don't care.

Also good to do it from time to time out of nowhere and then take a long lunch. If they want to keep you, you'll get a raise. You'll probably also want to make sure your Linked In profile has been updated recently.

Or they'll assume you're leaving and choose not to compete to retain you. Then all the bonus etc gets funneled to the other coworkers.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#217

Post by vidarh »

diatone wrote: post #162
gretch wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re saying that having a lot of money helped you have a great body. That’s true of course but the relationship is also true in reverse. You can leverage a great body into making a lot of money. Great examples are Arnold or the Rock who became big action movie stars based on their physique. Also, of course athletes. So I don’t think “money is the key to success in every other aspect of life” is true since the relat…

Nitpick: it’s not as straightforward to leverage a great body towards money as it is to leverage money towards a great body. Arnold and Dwayne Johnson are outliers. Many athletes struggle financially. For other reasons I agree with your end point in that money isn’t strictly necessary for success everywhere else, but please don’t suggest that money isn’t uniquely useful when put to the task.

In fact, powerlifting and bodybuilding are notorious for being money drains for people who are competing but aren't in a very tiny proportion of top performers.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#218

Post by sputr »

The text does not mention, in my opinion, the most toxic status game: moral superiority.

If choosing money leads to working all the time, and beauty to mental problems, choosing moral superiority leads to what you started out fighting against - an immoral person.

This, in my opinion, happens through radicalization, which is a result of the fight to be "more ideologically pure" than others.

The worst thing is, this game seems to be the dominant status game of the western society right now. And we thought the "who has more money" was bad. We should have counted our blessings.

Nothing is worse than a fervent believer in the pureness of their own moral standing, who decides that yours is lacking. I used to, wrongly, believe that this level of fervent belief in ones own moral superiority only happens among the religious (with the well documented atrocities that follow). But, unfortunately, political ideology is not much different.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#219

Post by ninkendo »

vlunkr wrote: post #155
thomastjeffery wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Faith was always described to me as a belief in something that cannot be proven. In my experience, however, especially in terms of Christianity, faith is a belief in something that cannot be proven, and - crucially - can be disproven . To put it more clearly, faith detaches a claim from reality, and puts it into a realm above criticism. As a small example, the idea that the first human male was created directly by a…

The definition of faith as believing in something that can be disproven is a contradiction. You believe your religion is disproven, that is why you no longer have faith in it.

“Can’t be proven” and “can be disproven” are not the same thing. There’s a whole range of concepts that are unfalsifiable, and religion is the typical example of this.

Re: Choose your status game wisely

#220

Post by VoodooJuJu »

trh0awayman wrote: post #195

I think it's interesting how different people view status, like the "Harvard Professor or Homeless guy?" quiz that used to get passed around. I grew up in one of the last WASP strongholds in the US and the more money you had, the smaller the house you lived in (up to a point). People could afford insanely expensive cars, but would buy tasteful ones instead (excepting kids). Most people wouldn't be caught dead in a Ra…

>where even the wealthiest people are not allowed to move to because they don't have the right last name

How is this carried out in practice?

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