I’d like to point out that high status does not automatically equate with happiness/high life satisfaction. Status comes with responsibility, including dealing with people nitpicking all of your public decisions and statements, and even some private aspects of your life.
If anyone is trying to get status in order to feel safe and comfortable, they are confused about how status works.
I’ll note that I got significantly higher status after deciding to ignore what all the “high-status” people were telling me to do and instead did an ambitious project that most of them told me was doomed to fail. And maybe it is doomed to failure and I just don’t see it yet. But I think that if you’re trying to become high status by checking all the boxes that the current high status people tell you to, it’s not likely to work.
That said, I don’t think everyone should go rogue and start projects that high status folks think are doomed (0 or negative expected value). I also don’t think doing so has made me especially high status, just slightly above average rather than a fair bit below.
Status works like OP describes, when going from “dregs” to “valued community member”. Social safety is a very basic need, and EA membership undermines that for many people by getting them to compare themselves to famous EAs, rather than to a more realistic peer group. This is especially true in regions with a lower density of EAs, or where all the ‘real’ EAs pack up and move to higher density regions.
I think the OP meant “high” as a relative term, compared to many people who feel like dregs.
I’d like to point out that high status does not automatically equate with happiness/high life satisfaction. Status comes with responsibility, including dealing with people nitpicking all of your public decisions and statements, and even some private aspects of your life.
If anyone is trying to get status in order to feel safe and comfortable, they are confused about how status works.
I’ll note that I got significantly higher status after deciding to ignore what all the “high-status” people were telling me to do and instead did an ambitious project that most of them told me was doomed to fail. And maybe it is doomed to failure and I just don’t see it yet. But I think that if you’re trying to become high status by checking all the boxes that the current high status people tell you to, it’s not likely to work.
That said, I don’t think everyone should go rogue and start projects that high status folks think are doomed (0 or negative expected value). I also don’t think doing so has made me especially high status, just slightly above average rather than a fair bit below.
Status works like OP describes, when going from “dregs” to “valued community member”. Social safety is a very basic need, and EA membership undermines that for many people by getting them to compare themselves to famous EAs, rather than to a more realistic peer group. This is especially true in regions with a lower density of EAs, or where all the ‘real’ EAs pack up and move to higher density regions.
I think the OP meant “high” as a relative term, compared to many people who feel like dregs.