Be careful not to oversimplify—norms are complex, mutable, and context-sensitive. “no showing off” is not a very complete description of anyone’s expectations. No showing off badly is closer, but “badly” is doing a LOT of work—in itself is a complex and somewhat recursive norm.
Finding out where “showing” skills is aligned with “excercising” those skills to achieve an outcome is non-trivial, but ever so wonderful if you do find a profession and project where it’s possible.
Thanks on reminding me of nuance. Yeah, the “badly” does a lot of work, but also puts me in the right head space to guess at when I do and don’t think real people would get annoyed at someone “showing off”.
Be careful not to oversimplify—norms are complex, mutable, and context-sensitive. “no showing off” is not a very complete description of anyone’s expectations. No showing off badly is closer, but “badly” is doing a LOT of work—in itself is a complex and somewhat recursive norm.
Finding out where “showing” skills is aligned with “excercising” those skills to achieve an outcome is non-trivial, but ever so wonderful if you do find a profession and project where it’s possible.
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersignaling , the idea where if you’re confident that you’re assumed to have some skills, you actually show HIGHER skills by failing to signal those skills.
Thanks on reminding me of nuance. Yeah, the “badly” does a lot of work, but also puts me in the right head space to guess at when I do and don’t think real people would get annoyed at someone “showing off”.