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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

#31

Post by lordnacho »

jacknews wrote: post #19
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…

"People can't see it, but they are swapping dignity for attention." Nice observation, though in rare cases not necessarily true. The thing is, as you point out, status does actually bring potentially huge benefits; People start to come to you with proposals, rather than the other way. Success/Status attracts opportunity. So to some extent we're hardwired to strive for it.

The people I'm talking about are beyond needing proposals. The only point of getting proposals at this point is to get more flattery. This is not to say it isn't useful for society to have some guys floating around funding new projects, just the point of it for them does not seem to be to find interesting projects to help. You can help people quietly.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#32

Post by emsy »

This behavior can also have bad consequences for people in unexpected ways. Want to land a job? Create a highly used npm package and put it in your portfolio. It doesn’t matter if it’s supported long after, has a ton of dependencies or is even really necessary in the first place. And shit like this is how we end up with things like left pad.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#33

Post by csomar »

> Looking back, I also feel like I was frequently compared agaisnst other children. As a reminder that life is a competition, and you don’t want to be behind.

I don't know how old you are but life is a competition. At the very fundamental level, all species are competing with each other for survival. Your mother was not mislead, she knows that in order to survive in this jungle, you need to be competitive. And given how shallow the world is, these titles and awards matters, so you should get them.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#34

Post by Cougher »

pjc50 wrote: post #11
owens99 wrote: post #2

Great article. The part that stands out to me: > Unfortunately, after a year of purposely trying, I was still not becoming Elon Musk nor any other “successful” person. Despite reading everyday, meditating, getting up early, taking cold showers, and many more things. There’s a ridiculous amount of bro science in Silicon Valley tech. And this stuff doesn’t matter at all. All that matters is product-market fit.

"Bro Science" is product-market fit. The market is people obsessed with success and prestige, and bro-science is ideas (and products) marketed at helping them think they have it. People who self-define as "rational" are harder to sell to upfront, but once you're past the defenses and hooked into their identity they'll actively defend what you've marketed to them.

I think you're redefining bro-science.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#35

Post by mozey »

csomar wrote: post #33

> Looking back, I also feel like I was frequently compared agaisnst other children. As a reminder that life is a competition, and you don’t want to be behind. I don't know how old you are but life is a competition. At the very fundamental level, all species are competing with each other for survival. Your mother was not mislead, she knows that in order to survive in this jungle, you need to be competitive. And given…

> in order to survive in this jungle, you need to competitive

It's funny when people use jungle as an example to make this argument. Cooperation might be even more important than competition in an actual jungle.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#36

Post by trevyn »

csomar wrote: post #33

> Looking back, I also feel like I was frequently compared agaisnst other children. As a reminder that life is a competition, and you don’t want to be behind. I don't know how old you are but life is a competition. At the very fundamental level, all species are competing with each other for survival. Your mother was not mislead, she knows that in order to survive in this jungle, you need to be competitive. And given…

More accurately, many overlapping competitions, not all of which are easy to see.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#37

Post by digitaltrees »

csomar wrote: post #33

> Looking back, I also feel like I was frequently compared agaisnst other children. As a reminder that life is a competition, and you don’t want to be behind. I don't know how old you are but life is a competition. At the very fundamental level, all species are competing with each other for survival. Your mother was not mislead, she knows that in order to survive in this jungle, you need to be competitive. And given…

Except individual will lose to groups that cooperate, so even if the world is competitive, there is an incentive for collaboration and equality.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#38

Post by gameswithgo »

csomar wrote: post #33

> Looking back, I also feel like I was frequently compared agaisnst other children. As a reminder that life is a competition, and you don’t want to be behind. I don't know how old you are but life is a competition. At the very fundamental level, all species are competing with each other for survival. Your mother was not mislead, she knows that in order to survive in this jungle, you need to be competitive. And given…

taken too far this outlook leads to missed opportunities. other successful people aren’t always going to want to cooperate with someone who is too cuttthroat and selfish. sometimes less is more.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#39

Post by arethuza »

bambax wrote: post #22

OT, and possibly unpopular here, but this really gets on my nerves: > In Paul Graham’s essay on, How to Do what You Love* he warns us about the prestige trap: (...) you have to like the actual work of novel-writing if you’re going to be good at it; you have to like making up elaborate lies* PG's contempt for anything literary pervades in many of his essays, which may reveal some kind of unhealthy obsession, esp. for…

That made me think of the start of a recent talk by Charlie Stross (the excellent SF author and HN user cstross):

"Good morning. I'm Charlie Stross, and I tell lies for money."

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2019/12/artific...

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#40

Post by arethuza »

goatinaboat wrote: post #29
akhilcacharya wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Purchasing real estate (or even a Tesla, etc) is out of reach for people like me, and likely will be for 10+ years from now. Say someone makes 150% or more of what I make (ergo are valued 150% superior in a fair labor market) and they can save far more and build a their net worth significantly faster even with a more luxurious lifestyle.

Say someone makes 150% or more of what I make (ergo are valued 150% superior in a fair labor market) and they can save far more and build a their net worth significantly faster even with a more luxurious lifestyle That person thinks the same way about someone who earns 150% more than them ... this cycle never stops

If anything it seems to get worse the further up the pyramid you are....
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