[HN Gopher] My Status Circles
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My Status Circles
Author : galfarragem
Score : 13 points
Date : 2025-02-05 11:35 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.overcomingbias.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.overcomingbias.com)
| sdwr wrote:
| "Social dynamics from first principles" posts always grind my
| gears. It's a timid, egotistical landgrab, planting a flag on
| well-trodden ground.
|
| The OG sociologists navigated with more humility. They accepted
| the role of observer + tourist. I liked Stigma by Erving Goffman.
| roenxi wrote:
| This blog post seems to be slightly on the rambling end of the
| spectrum, which leads me to suggest that he would get a lot of
| value out of doing some more research; such as a pleasant browse
| through Wikipedia. There are surely well-recognised terms for the
| things he is describing and there'll be a lot of literature
| available if he uses them. For example, it looks to me like there
| is overlap between this article and
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_states_theory or the
| concept of a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_group so I'd
| expect the terms to come up. That wouldn't necessarily change the
| article but it'd give him a more robust mental framework to
| analyse these topics.
|
| Also, the lead paragraph seems a bit incongruous. I mean, sure
| throwing in a random political jab will get people's attention
| but it lacks follow up analysis. Care is one of the least useful
| forces out there for making the world better. We've got so much
| more value out of harnessing greed and activating selfishness
| that it might be all we need to run a prosperous society. And
| hence the greedy are much more important to my wellbeing then
| nebulous people who care about me from a great distance. Most of
| my material wealth came from people who not only didn't care but
| also didn't care about me or even know I even existed. It was
| acquired on a strictly transactional basis to the benefit of
| everyone involved. That aligns the incentives to make wealth
| generation sustainable and available.
| ccppurcell wrote:
| Your first paragraph is spot on. Your second has no follow up
| analysis. It's interesting that you say greed (i.e. self
| interest) has made the world a better place and then tacitly
| admit that what you mean by that is a better place for you. I
| don't think any of the truly important advances of the last
| hundred years came about by harnessing greed, quite the
| opposite in fact.
| cjohnson318 wrote:
| I think this is the thesis:
|
| > By telling the world directly what your community respects, you
| might induce them to change what they respect, or to join your
| community.
|
| I think we're all pretty clear what different communities value,
| by the way those communities communicate, the way they act, and
| who they vote for as representatives. That's how you directly
| communicate what your community respects, the sum total of your
| words and actions, and actions count extra.
| atoav wrote:
| The thing is, telling doesn't do shit. How many communities
| will say value a good virtue, while their actions are literally
| the opposite of what their story has been for the past
| centuries?
|
| Words are cheap, judge their actions. Are they more charitable?
| How do they treat the weak or their enemies? Etc.
| Carrok wrote:
| Based on the title, I was hoping this would be about some sort of
| personal metrics system, with a "circle" or gauge style graph for
| several categories, such as "Mental health", "Physical health",
| "Relationships", "Education", "Work satisfaction", etc.
|
| Could be a fun app to make.
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(page generated 2025-02-06 23:00 UTC)