re: accumulating status in hope of future counterfactual impact.
I model status-qua-status (as opposed to status as a side effect of something real) as something like a score for “how good are you at cooperating with this particular machine?”. The more you demonstrate cooperation, the more the machine will trust you. But you can’t leverage that into getting the machine to do something different- that would immediately zero out your status/cooperation score.
There are exceptions. If you’re exceptionally strategic you might make good use of that status by e.g. changing what the machine thinks it wants, or coopting the resources and splintering. But this isn’t the vibe I get from people I talk to with the ‘status then impact’ plan, or from any of 80ks advice. They sound like they think status is a fungible resource that can be spent anywhere, like money[1].
So unless you start with a goal and authentically backchain into a plan where a set amount of a specific form of status is a key resource, you probably shouldn’t accumulate status.
I think money-then-impact plans risk being nonterminating, but are great if they are responsive and will terminate.
I also think getting a few years of normal work under your belt between college and crazy independent work can be a real asset, as long as you avoid the just-one-more-year trap.
re: accumulating status in hope of future counterfactual impact.
I model status-qua-status (as opposed to status as a side effect of something real) as something like a score for “how good are you at cooperating with this particular machine?”. The more you demonstrate cooperation, the more the machine will trust you. But you can’t leverage that into getting the machine to do something different- that would immediately zero out your status/cooperation score.
There are exceptions. If you’re exceptionally strategic you might make good use of that status by e.g. changing what the machine thinks it wants, or coopting the resources and splintering. But this isn’t the vibe I get from people I talk to with the ‘status then impact’ plan, or from any of 80ks advice. They sound like they think status is a fungible resource that can be spent anywhere, like money[1].
So unless you start with a goal and authentically backchain into a plan where a set amount of a specific form of status is a key resource, you probably shouldn’t accumulate status.
^
I think money-then-impact plans risk being nonterminating, but are great if they are responsive and will terminate.
I also think getting a few years of normal work under your belt between college and crazy independent work can be a real asset, as long as you avoid the just-one-more-year trap.