The writer is referring to perception, not status. Ultimately our modern society doesn't actually offer what has been traditionally called status. While perception is determined by consumer choices, performance, charisma or social competence, it is ultimately shallow, fickle, and limited. Status is far more durable. If you were the king of England in the pre-industrial age, it didn't matter if you were a failure, unattractive, unlikable, weak, unintelligent, accomplished nothing, you were still the king of England. In todays modern world, high "status" positions, whether you're the CEO of a company or a celebrity for instance, are temporary roles that require persistent effort to maintain. Once those roles are lost through retirement, expulsion, or irrelevance, the person loses whatever status it conferred. In the past, being a duke or count was a permanent status that remained regardless of your fortunes. There is no modern equivalent (at least in America where aristocratic titles are irrelevant). Ultimately we may be living in a world of unequal distribution of wealth, but we live in a world of equal status, since no one really has any.
Choose your status game wisely
251–260 of 344 posts
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
I view the reliance upon the idea of status as a low-status activity. Low status or high status only emanate when you're playing the status game, but it's not a game that you necessarily need to play. And if you're not playing the game, low-status or high-status doesn't matter; they're just different colors. Nothing wrong with playing the game either.
The worst part about status is mostly how seriously people take it. If you’re on either extreme, then, yeah, your life is different. But the nature of status is that it is statistically impossible for everyone to be high status. Thus, it is a zero sum game, and one which is usually rigged against you, and full of people who aren’t smart enough to realize this + are willing to give up more than you are. Play stupid ga…
And, it turns out, this is more conducive to increasing your status.
Beyond the signalling games, it's reality that confers status. Consider...
Would you rather look rich or be rich? Would you rather look like you can do mostly whatever you want or actually do mostly whatever you want?
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Starving artists" have long been romanticized, for one example of there being non-money games out there.
Usually after they're dead and the art community has reached an agreement that they were pretty great, though; it's not much of a status game if it doesn't bear fruit while you're around to enjoy it.
No, that is when they are monetized, and it’s part of the romanticization — the idea of a tortured soul finding glory but only after death is part of the appeal.
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#254Sometimes 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…
Dressing down and/or breaking social norms is another type of status flex - it's because you're a high paid engineer working at a top tech company that you can more or less do whatever you want in a way a more typical employee couldn't, or couldn't without being taken seriously.
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#255The writer is referring to perception, not status. Ultimately our modern society doesn't actually offer what has been traditionally called status. While perception is determined by consumer choices, performance, charisma or social competence, it is ultimately shallow, fickle, and limited. Status is far more durable. If you were the king of England in the pre-industrial age, it didn't matter if you were a failure, una…
I think I’d phrase it as “status used to be more stable”. I don’t see why we wouldn’t call social positions that are perceived to be desirable as “high-status” just because they can change. All social status is based on social perception, regardless of how stable it is.
And I think it’s not as cut and dry as you’re making it sound. Dukes and lords (and probably even kings sometimes) could still lose status by, e.g., losing battles or territory, or not navigating the royal social hierarchy well. And having been a CEO continues to confer some amount of status even after you’ve left the position.
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> 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.
Depends on context.
“How does governance oversee the regulatory aspect of this process?”: who is this annoying busybody?
“You asked me to automate this part of the flow, but it can get gummed up whenever the auditors request a six month look back. That happens about a couple dozen times a year, and the system we’re all designing so far doesn’t hold the governance information to automate this when that happens, are you folks okay with the process going to manual intervention about half the year?”: damn, he just saved our bacon, drinks are on us next time we go
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#257I always wonder why folks with 9-figure net worth (or high 8) keep doing any job at all. People do not get very many quality-adjusted life years -- why would you spend 8+ hours per day doing CEO work when you could spend that time with family and friends?
CEOs don’t work, they exercise power. It’s a completely different concept from working and it’s totally fun. It’s the thing you do when you are bored with vacationing and spending time with friends.
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#258The writer is referring to perception, not status. Ultimately our modern society doesn't actually offer what has been traditionally called status. While perception is determined by consumer choices, performance, charisma or social competence, it is ultimately shallow, fickle, and limited. Status is far more durable. If you were the king of England in the pre-industrial age, it didn't matter if you were a failure, una…
I think you're distinguishing between held and assigned status leaning into a "realpolitik" of status.
You're wrong about there being no modern equivalent. Today we talk about the owner class. Those who own income streams which is equivalent to having the "right" to continuous tax incomes. I would caution that wealth is only a single system to having your needs and desires met farmers can sustain themselves and others, academics actually develop superior knowledge which has transferable value (but less than academia will tell you), and so on.
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#259This is equivalent to "choose your peer group/tribe/cohort wisely"
Whatever you pick for your status game needs to align with your "tribe" to ensure you feel respected and connected even as you pursue your "status game".
You might as well choose the crowd you feel most aligned with deep down and then pick a status game that most resonates for you and that "tribe". Because you have an affinity to that crowd it's likely there's one or more "status games" you all value.
I think I've seen this advice earlier but can't recall where.
Re: Choose your status game wisely
#260I 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…
> I think it's interesting how different people view status, like the "Harvard Professor or Homeless guy?" quiz that used to get passed around.
This is counter-signalling. "I don't have to dress like a high-status individual, because I'm so high status that my high status is clear either way." It's why somewhat intelligent people use big words, but very intelligent people speak plainly: they are so intelligent their intelligence is clear even without the big words, and they want you to know that.