Long Read: Status as a Service (StaaS)

Eugene Wei | 108 minutes

Photo by Joshua Golde on Unsplash

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person in possession of little fortune, must be in want of more social capital."
So wrote Jane Austen, or she would have, I think, if she were chronicling our current age (instead we have Taylor Lorenz, and thank goodness for that).

Let's begin with two principles:
1. People are status-seeking monkeys*
2. People seek out the most efficient path to maximizing social capital

Snippets

Step one to self-discipline is to de-link your personal failings from moral failings. You have to accept that you cave to indulgence and that this doesn’t necessarily make you a horrible person.

- Mark Manson, If Self-Discipline Feels Difficult, Then You’re Doing It Wrong

Being quiet and slowly building mastery and expertise doesn’t pay off much at first. So many creatives must make a calculation: Do I want the short term, could-go-viral-at-any-second thrill of being a vocal expert in my field?

- Sean Blanda, The Creative World’s Bullshit Industrial Complex