I’m skeptical that it’s possible to use norms to suppress status calculations, and even more skeptical that it’s possible without huge cost/effort, beyond what typical LW members would be willing to pay. It’s hard for me to think of any groups or communities whose members have managed to suppress their status motivations/calculations. (It seems a lot more feasible/productive to exploit or redirect such motivations in various ways.) But if you have more to say about this, I’d be very curious to hear you out.
Not suppress status calculations of course, my point is about uses of being specific about particular norms that contribute to such status calculations (as well as norms that are not about status calculations). This should enable some agency in shaping incentives (by influencing specific norms according to their expected effects), rather than settling to cynically pointing out that status calculations are an immutable part of human nature, at least for most people. That is, the content of the status calculations is not immutable.
(It seems a lot more feasible/productive to exploit or redirect such motivations in various ways.)
Probably you are thinking about a particular application of norm-shaping that wouldn’t work, while I was responding to what I perceived as a framing suggesting a general dismissal of norm-shaping as a useful thing to consider. This parenthetical sure seems to thicken the plot. (Maybe you are somehow intending the same point, in a way I’m not seeing, while also being skeptical of me making the same point, meaning that you are not seeing that I’m making the same point, possibly because it wouldn’t be a good response to your own intended point that I’m misunderstanding...)
I’m skeptical that it’s possible to use norms to suppress status calculations, and even more skeptical that it’s possible without huge cost/effort, beyond what typical LW members would be willing to pay. It’s hard for me to think of any groups or communities whose members have managed to suppress their status motivations/calculations. (It seems a lot more feasible/productive to exploit or redirect such motivations in various ways.) But if you have more to say about this, I’d be very curious to hear you out.
Not suppress status calculations of course, my point is about uses of being specific about particular norms that contribute to such status calculations (as well as norms that are not about status calculations). This should enable some agency in shaping incentives (by influencing specific norms according to their expected effects), rather than settling to cynically pointing out that status calculations are an immutable part of human nature, at least for most people. That is, the content of the status calculations is not immutable.
Probably you are thinking about a particular application of norm-shaping that wouldn’t work, while I was responding to what I perceived as a framing suggesting a general dismissal of norm-shaping as a useful thing to consider. This parenthetical sure seems to thicken the plot. (Maybe you are somehow intending the same point, in a way I’m not seeing, while also being skeptical of me making the same point, meaning that you are not seeing that I’m making the same point, possibly because it wouldn’t be a good response to your own intended point that I’m misunderstanding...)
Ok, I think we’re not disagreeing, I just misunderstood your comment. Thanks for clarifying.