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People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

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Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#121

Post by beaconstudios »

WilliamEdward wrote: post #97
ak39 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marcus Aurelius is asking exactly how will that be of _use_? (Even when you’re alive)

Feeling better about yourself is not useful? Influencing a large number of people is not useful?

Marcus Aurelius being a writer on stoicism, I feel I have to point out that stoicism would suggest that you control how you feel about yourself and are only tying your feelings to external factors. You can feel good about yourself without external validation.

Influencing others is only practically useful in your lifetime, so posthumous fame doesn't really do you anything.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#122

Post by cgs »

You are trying to fill a basic human need, which is simply beeing seen by others. What could alleviate some of this pain is simple social connection. I was always reading about how important it is and kind of blew it off, but as I get older I'm understanding how important it is to our well being. Reach out and make connections. Get coffee with a friend who listens to you. Find a hobby where you are interacting with people in meatspace. This may even lead to finding deeper purpose in ways you may not have expected.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#123

Post by robbrown451 »

"would not pursue anything unless he knew people cared about it"

This one struck me as a bit odd. I don't see a problem with being motivated by whether you are creating value for other people.

"Should I learn to make pasta from scratch?"

That's fine if someone wants to do that, but I hold higher admiration for people who have some drive to make the world better, even in fairly small ways, rather than spending all their time on something so trivial.

And yeah, trying to earn my admiration isn't what you should probably be doing. But doing something that is admirable? That's a good thing. To me, anyway.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#124

Post by barry-cotter »

pkhamre wrote: post #60

> Should I learn to make pasta from scratch? No, that’s crazy. Nobody cares if you can make pasta from scratch and it’s not going to make any money. I think the author got it wrong here. He mixes the words "successful" with "fame". By learning a skill like making pasta from scratch, you can make yourself and other people happy. And if you go deep into the field, you can even make money on it, if that's important to y…

> And I learn my friends and family how to make proper pizza.

teach, not learn. Also in English one says pizzas not pizzi. Everything else is perfect idiomatic English.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#125

Post by flycaliguy »

lordnacho wrote: post #4

Heh this is only a very mild version of status obsession. To a degree it's actually a good thing to want, so long as you stay committed to doing the actual work of getting successful. What amuses me to no end is when I see a rich guy who wants to keep being in the news. As if to say "see, I actually deserve all this wealth". I've seen several of these people over the years. Somehow the media keep calling them to comm…

I think you are underestimating the promotional value of media coverage. It may not be about them at all. They may simply be leveraging their reach to get the word out about something they invested in.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#126

Post by [deleted] »

philbarr wrote: post #56
akhilcacharya wrote: post #9

> Got a FAANG internship? Well it wasn’t one of the good FAANGs, so if you really think about it, you really didn’t accomplish anything. This is funny because I’ve been straight up told this by multiple people. It’s not neuroticism, it’s the simple fact that hierarchies exist.

Which ones are the "bad" FAANGs?

[deleted]

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#127

Post by goatinaboat »

AQuantized wrote: post #117
_4ziu wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, a stupid quote. "What good is praise except to make your lifestyle a little more comfortable" That sounds pretty darn good to me. And the fact that your memory and work can be passed down and influence a theoretically infinite number of people.

What good will that influence do you?

Right. It’s like some companies tell you they can’t pay you but it will be great “exposure” or whatever. At some point you need to convert whatever that is into something you can actually use.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#128

Post by SeanAppleby »

0x445442 wrote: post #87
astuyvenberg wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the person earning 150% more than _them_ isn't purchasing a Tesla. It's a Lamborghini or a Bugatti. It's not a 3br home in SF - it's a summer home in Napa, or a chalet in Tahoe. The person earning 150% more than _them_ is coveting the latest Bell Jetranger, or Gulfstream G700. The obsession for more is the same at all levels.

You know I hear this argument a lot and I don't buy it because it ignores a baseline at the lower end. I think there are a lot of people that are not concerned with the luxuries you reference but are deeply concerned with their base needs and random setbacks life throws at them. They basically want to save for a rainy day so as avoid stress when they encounter bumps in the road. It's like asking someone who works for…

You're completely correct, diminishing returns of income on happiness is well established, and I would be surprised if people here were not aware.

This community skews very hard towards high earners though, so people here probably view that as something that goes without saying, but that isn't within the purview of this particular discussion about the rat race in tech.

Among this community, it's probably true that a significant raise wouldn't significantly change their day to day lives, although obviously that is less and less true as their baseline income goes down.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#130

Post by paulgb »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #90
huffmsa wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanting to be engineer #5549383 at a big company is a fools errand if you want recognition and reknowned. It's like trying to get famous working as the guy who bolts the doors onto the frame at the Belvedere assembly plant. The lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the mouse. All of the people cited in the article (Gates, Musk, Jobs) eschewed "prestige institutions" and worked on what they wanted to work…

Gates Musk and Jobs all came from rich families and were able to work on what they wanted to work on. The people going for prestigious institutions may actually need a job and and are optimizing for the best possible outcome.

Also, I think Jobs is the only one who could really be said to eschew prestige institutuons. Gates went to Harvard and Musk went to Wharton (and Queen's, which is the Canadian equivalent of ivy-league).
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