If a group has standard which provide value, then while it isn’t a ‘costly signal’ it sorts out people who aren’t willing to invest effort.*
Just because your organization wants to be strong and get things done, doesn’t mean it has to spread like cancer*/cocaine**.
And something that provides ‘positive value’ is still a cost. Living under a flat 40% income tax by one government has the same effect as living under 40 governments which each have a flat 1% income tax. You don’t have to go straight to ‘members of this group must smoke’. (In a different time and place, ‘members of this group must not smoke’ might have been regarded as an enormous cost, and worked as such!)
*bigger isn’t necessarily better if you’re sacrificing quality for quantity
**This might mean that strong and healthy people avoid your group.
If a group has standard which provide value, then while it isn’t a ‘costly signal’ it sorts out people who aren’t willing to invest effort.*
Just because your organization wants to be strong and get things done, doesn’t mean it has to spread like cancer*/cocaine**.
And something that provides ‘positive value’ is still a cost. Living under a flat 40% income tax by one government has the same effect as living under 40 governments which each have a flat 1% income tax. You don’t have to go straight to ‘members of this group must smoke’. (In a different time and place, ‘members of this group must not smoke’ might have been regarded as an enormous cost, and worked as such!)
*bigger isn’t necessarily better if you’re sacrificing quality for quantity
**This might mean that strong and healthy people avoid your group.