There is nowhere where I’ve witnessed (and felt) more status anxiety than in Lesswrong.
Really? I think status anxiety is probably everywhere and I have no reason to expect that LWers are more status anxious than most people. Are you sure you aren’t just noticing that people talk about status more on LW that in other places? I notice way more status anxiety among, say, high school kids. They just don’t have a language for talking about it.
Having lived in L.A. before the Bay Area, my impression is that the population of L.A. is (on average) significantly more status-anxious than the Bay Area LW community, but the population of L.A. is (on average) much less able to talk coherently about it.
People from the Bay Area famously have contempt for Los Angeles and SoCal culture. One way of showing status is by conspicuously showing that you don’t care about the status signifiers of another group.
Usually I do not witness the internal experience of other people.
I had no intention of making the claim that it is felt by people here more than people elsewhere. And surely, as mentioned by you and shminux and lukeprog, it isn’t. That seemed too obvious to be stated, it is just that the topic arises to the surface of speech here, whereas it remains under the confusion armor elsewhere.
But hey, as Dan Gilbert would have it, if someone thinks your text is confusing, it is, by definition, confusing. So I’ll edit it as
” more status anxiety expressed and talked about than in Lesswrong”
Really? I think status anxiety is probably everywhere and I have no reason to expect that LWers are more status anxious than most people. Are you sure you aren’t just noticing that people talk about status more on LW that in other places? I notice way more status anxiety among, say, high school kids. They just don’t have a language for talking about it.
Having lived in L.A. before the Bay Area, my impression is that the population of L.A. is (on average) significantly more status-anxious than the Bay Area LW community, but the population of L.A. is (on average) much less able to talk coherently about it.
People from the Bay Area famously have contempt for Los Angeles and SoCal culture. One way of showing status is by conspicuously showing that you don’t care about the status signifiers of another group.
By “witnessed” I meant: Read and heard.
Usually I do not witness the internal experience of other people.
I had no intention of making the claim that it is felt by people here more than people elsewhere. And surely, as mentioned by you and shminux and lukeprog, it isn’t. That seemed too obvious to be stated, it is just that the topic arises to the surface of speech here, whereas it remains under the confusion armor elsewhere.
But hey, as Dan Gilbert would have it, if someone thinks your text is confusing, it is, by definition, confusing. So I’ll edit it as ” more status anxiety expressed and talked about than in Lesswrong”