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Pursuing status will never bring true happiness

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Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness

#41

Post by andrewmutz »

tsunamifury wrote: post #10

I think rejecting status wholesale is also a huge mistake. Here’s the harsh reality. Many people judge and make decisions based on status. You can purport be above it and bootstrap and work as hard as you want but that one guy with status will get the raise he needed and now you don’t have. You can then try to lie to yourself that that is just superficial status. But it’s not. That guy can now use those resources to…

I think this comment misses the point of the article.

The article doesn't say you shouldn't work on projecting status for specific outcomes. If you want to raise money from venture capitalists, you should try to present yourself in a way that venture capitalists perceive as worthy of investment. If you think that VCs invest based on Ted talks or viral tweets, then do that.

There's a world of difference between executing a social media strategy to support your fund raising efforts and desperately trying to appear high status on Twitter to soothe your feelings of inadequacy.

Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness

#45

Post by pclmulqdq »

fogzen wrote: post #26
toomuchtodo wrote: post #7

https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103497725173760 > Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy. https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103627387813888 > Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games. From @naval’s Twitter thread “how…

Material wealth is status. Money is status. Assets that earn while you sleep is status. Money is arguably the ultimate status game.

When I lived in New York and worked at a trading firm, I met plenty of "high-status" people. They usually lived paycheck-to-paycheck on a 7-figure salary because they were busy playing status games - giving a few hundred thousand to charity, having a big loft in a nice neighborhood, throwing lavish parties, etc. Other people saved that money and retired at 40 to places like Wisconsin and Montana - they had wealth. Status is expensive. The only people for whom it is cheap are the uber-wealthy, those who earn $100 million a year or so.

Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness

#46

Post by gnicholas »

> I experienced this myself when running my first company. We had been bootstrapping for a year when a competitor entered the space and raised $10 million.

This brought up a lot of insecurity....Comparing myself to them, I felt like an outsider—like we were missing something or approaching the business wrong.

I can see how status would be at play here, but if I were a founder whose market had just been crashed by a competitor that raised a ton more money, I'd mostly be worried. Even if I thought I was smart for taking a bootstrapped approach, I'd be concerned that having a well-funded competitor would make life much harder.

Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness

#47

Post by maxbond »

puppymaster wrote: post #16
toomuchtodo wrote: post #7

https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103497725173760 > Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy. https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103627387813888 > Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games. From @naval’s Twitter thread “how…

Yep. As a HF mentor used to tell me - Wealth buys optionality. Variance is the outcome.

I agree wealth buys optionality, but regarding variance wouldn't that imply wealthy people have better and worse outcomes than nonwealthy people, who would have consistently middling outcomes? That doesn't really match my observations.

Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness

#48

Post by deathanatos »

sys_64738 wrote: post #9
jjtheblunt wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until you go golfing one time, and are like omg wtf how do people retire, because I’m bored? I say that because that’s what many i know have realized once they (we) didn’t have to work. I suspect the personality of engineering types likes puzzle solving, and is inclined to find some class of puzzles to “work” on.

I only work because I can't retire. I'd rather be bored silly than to work as I work to live, not the other way around.

… yeah. There are so many creative pursuits I'd like to try. But after a long week of work, by the time I have recovered sufficient energy to think about it … it's 11:59pm on Sunday.

Boredom sounds like a nice "problem" to have.

Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness

#49

Post by hodgesrm »

gnicholas wrote: post #46

> I experienced this myself when running my first company. We had been bootstrapping for a year when a competitor entered the space and raised $10 million. This brought up a lot of insecurity....Comparing myself to them, I felt like an outsider—like we were missing something or approaching the business wrong. I can see how status would be at play here, but if I were a founder whose market had just been crashed by a c…

> I'd be concerned that having a well-funded competitor would make life much harder.

That's certainly true for things that you can buy with a lot of money, such as marketing. On the other hand, having such a competitor forces you to think really hard about how to help customers and what makes your company different.

Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness

#50

Post by julianeon »

I think there was a historical change that has complicated our conversation about status.

In the 50's, the peak of this, it seemed like many people got a 'deal' that went something like this: you & your work colleagues could afford a house, car, and the costs associated with several children, starting in your 20's. All of those things at a pretty high level actually (ie not a terrible unsafe house, not a broken down jalopy, etc.) In fact, only one of you in a marriage would have to work: one salary was enough.

In that situation - and this is where a lot of these attitudes to status first evolved - high status can be treated as a "who cares?" thing. You and the 1950's CEO making 5x as much as you do both have a few well fed & healthy kids, right? In a hand-wavey sense you can say you're 'the same.'

Well, times have changed.

Now the fight is a lot more desperate. Higher status can be the difference between affording a house, or not; having kids, or not. The ability to live a middle class life is much more on the line.

So while in the 50's, the advantages to being more high status seemed almost cosmetic, today, they're anything but.

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