So, in this essay, high-trust SSC readers are Losers, right? They aren’t bothering to play competitive status games very much. They don’t see the world as full of (social) threats because they are privileged enough not to have to respond to them. So we see cheerful engineers or cheerful camgirls who think everyone is just being nice, partly because they project some kind of Niceness Field, or partly because they’re just not very threat-sensitive, because their livelihood is secure enough without having to fear small amounts of social hostility.
Clueless people would be the people who opt in, not out, to mainstream social-status competitions, right? So, these are the women who complain that their world is full of subtle sexist slights, for instance. They’re not quite talented enough or lucky enough to be able to ignore it when people respect them a little less; they need to work on constant reputation maintenance, and so they feel the stress of trying to balance the conflicting social demands of femininity. I could say “life’s so much simpler when you don’t worry about that crap!” but that would be unfair—my life is structured so I don’t have to worry about it.
I would have read it the opposite way; that the first group is clueless (since they are unaware of the struggle) and the second group is losers (since they are losing out in this scenario in many ways) but otherwise appreciate this clarification.
I think in context Michael is referring to “Clueless” and “Loser” as terms of art in Venkat’s “The Gervais Principle” series, not to the normal English meaning of the words.
Perhaps confusingly I also think you have the terms backwards, having read The Gervais Principle (clueless are trying to follow the official rules, losers don’t think the rules have meaning so they just manage their local political situation) - which suggests that the title is pretty unclear on its own.
Let’s play the clarification game!
So, in this essay, high-trust SSC readers are Losers, right? They aren’t bothering to play competitive status games very much. They don’t see the world as full of (social) threats because they are privileged enough not to have to respond to them. So we see cheerful engineers or cheerful camgirls who think everyone is just being nice, partly because they project some kind of Niceness Field, or partly because they’re just not very threat-sensitive, because their livelihood is secure enough without having to fear small amounts of social hostility.
Clueless people would be the people who opt in, not out, to mainstream social-status competitions, right? So, these are the women who complain that their world is full of subtle sexist slights, for instance. They’re not quite talented enough or lucky enough to be able to ignore it when people respect them a little less; they need to work on constant reputation maintenance, and so they feel the stress of trying to balance the conflicting social demands of femininity. I could say “life’s so much simpler when you don’t worry about that crap!” but that would be unfair—my life is structured so I don’t have to worry about it.
Is that a good summary?
I would have read it the opposite way; that the first group is clueless (since they are unaware of the struggle) and the second group is losers (since they are losing out in this scenario in many ways) but otherwise appreciate this clarification.
I think in context Michael is referring to “Clueless” and “Loser” as terms of art in Venkat’s “The Gervais Principle” series, not to the normal English meaning of the words.
Perhaps confusingly I also think you have the terms backwards, having read The Gervais Principle (clueless are trying to follow the official rules, losers don’t think the rules have meaning so they just manage their local political situation) - which suggests that the title is pretty unclear on its own.
Ah, thanks
“Opt in” seems like the wrong expression for the second thing.
Benquo’s comment is correct.