What? No, I did not mean to imply that your comment was a status grab.
That was how I read your “you would rather feel superior to the “normies” than understand them.
About the sigh, that was just an expression of exasperation, not at you specifically, but at the prevalence of people leaping to status explanations. The meta-problem I have with status explanations is that the move sucks all the oxygen out of the air. Someone says “status”, and suddenly no-one can say anything that won’t be interpreted as a status move, and it’s impossible to get back to the object level.
I agree with your asking the original question about why signalling, to which my first comment gave my answer.
That was how I read your “you would rather feel superior to the “normies” than understand them.
Ah, I understand how I gave that impression.
IMO there is a big difference between trying to feel superior to normies and trying to look superior to normies. The latter could be a status grab.
Your post above did not look like a status grab to me, because IMO it did not make you look good. I did not imagine that anyone on Less Wrong would think: “Wow, this guy looks down on ‘normies’ - he is so cool!”
That was how I read your “you would rather feel superior to the “normies” than understand them.
About the sigh, that was just an expression of exasperation, not at you specifically, but at the prevalence of people leaping to status explanations. The meta-problem I have with status explanations is that the move sucks all the oxygen out of the air. Someone says “status”, and suddenly no-one can say anything that won’t be interpreted as a status move, and it’s impossible to get back to the object level.
I agree with your asking the original question about why signalling, to which my first comment gave my answer.
Ah, I understand how I gave that impression.
IMO there is a big difference between trying to feel superior to normies and trying to look superior to normies. The latter could be a status grab.
Your post above did not look like a status grab to me, because IMO it did not make you look good. I did not imagine that anyone on Less Wrong would think: “Wow, this guy looks down on ‘normies’ - he is so cool!”