I definitely feel high-status. I’m in a high income percentile, and have substantially higher net worth than that most people with my income history, because I’ve made good decisions about how to use my income. Obviously, I know people who are higher status and wealth than me, but I mostly compare myself to people who are not. (Partly a deliberate choice to try to boost happiness and life satisfaction.)
There might be a status connection. To exaggerate, it feels more like “someone of my status shouldn’t stoop to grubbing around with low-status arguments about money” rather than “someone of my status doesn’t deserve money”. That might be a contributory factor, but it feels like the effect size is small.
In the negotiations I feel regret about, I definitely felt like the higher-status participant, but the less experienced at negotiation. Or rather, the less effective one.
An idea: Next time, before you start playing, precommit to converting the game money to real money by some nice coefficient, sending it to an effective charity, and writing about it (including the specific sum) on LessWrong. Then imagine that you are the only person who will ever send money to that charity, and that this is your only opportunity for sending.
That sounds worth trying. Thanks. Intuitively it feels as though it would make me care about the game outcome like I care about real-money negotiations. It also feels as though it would make me suck at the game. But that’s progress, because I have a known route to practicing at games.
At first I wanted to say “That’s going to cost me money!”. But I was fine with the idea of paying for training courses to get better. Financially it comes to the same thing, but loss aversion is at work here.
Thinking that through made me realise I’m muddled about my utility function here. If I play the game to win, I end up spending more money. I already give as much to charity as I feel comfortable with, so it would mean some discomfort.
Interesting question.
I definitely feel high-status. I’m in a high income percentile, and have substantially higher net worth than that most people with my income history, because I’ve made good decisions about how to use my income. Obviously, I know people who are higher status and wealth than me, but I mostly compare myself to people who are not. (Partly a deliberate choice to try to boost happiness and life satisfaction.)
There might be a status connection. To exaggerate, it feels more like “someone of my status shouldn’t stoop to grubbing around with low-status arguments about money” rather than “someone of my status doesn’t deserve money”. That might be a contributory factor, but it feels like the effect size is small.
In the negotiations I feel regret about, I definitely felt like the higher-status participant, but the less experienced at negotiation. Or rather, the less effective one.
An idea: Next time, before you start playing, precommit to converting the game money to real money by some nice coefficient, sending it to an effective charity, and writing about it (including the specific sum) on LessWrong. Then imagine that you are the only person who will ever send money to that charity, and that this is your only opportunity for sending.
Then start playing...
That sounds worth trying. Thanks. Intuitively it feels as though it would make me care about the game outcome like I care about real-money negotiations. It also feels as though it would make me suck at the game. But that’s progress, because I have a known route to practicing at games.
At first I wanted to say “That’s going to cost me money!”. But I was fine with the idea of paying for training courses to get better. Financially it comes to the same thing, but loss aversion is at work here.
Thinking that through made me realise I’m muddled about my utility function here. If I play the game to win, I end up spending more money. I already give as much to charity as I feel comfortable with, so it would mean some discomfort.
Yep. I might want to add that such an attitude is much more common in Europe than in the US.