This feels like a cheap shot at “successful” people—a social urge to insist that someone can’t “have it all”. I distinctly recall a post by Eliezer at some point that he hung out with rich, intelligent, successful individuals and they did in fact manage to have fun and enjoyable lives as well—despite a common media portrayal that such lives are intrinsically “hollow.”
I’d also say you’re conflating “status within an interaction” and “social standing”. I haven’t seen anything that suggests that being well respected and looked up to by your peer group is particularly damaging, whereas being CEO of a Fortune 500 company does seem to mess one’s judgment up rather badly. I routinely enjoy quite a few perks of high-status presentation, despite being relatively middle-class in actual social standing. My boss and co-workers value my opinion, and I have a lot of freedom because people trust me to act responsibly. At the same time, since I don’t have a lot of formal standing, there’s not a ton of attention on me, and there’s not a huge amount of pressure to avoid failure.
This feels like a cheap shot at “successful” people—a social urge to insist that someone can’t “have it all”. I distinctly recall a post by Eliezer at some point that he hung out with rich, intelligent, successful individuals and they did in fact manage to have fun and enjoyable lives as well—despite a common media portrayal that such lives are intrinsically “hollow.”
I’d also say you’re conflating “status within an interaction” and “social standing”. I haven’t seen anything that suggests that being well respected and looked up to by your peer group is particularly damaging, whereas being CEO of a Fortune 500 company does seem to mess one’s judgment up rather badly. I routinely enjoy quite a few perks of high-status presentation, despite being relatively middle-class in actual social standing. My boss and co-workers value my opinion, and I have a lot of freedom because people trust me to act responsibly. At the same time, since I don’t have a lot of formal standing, there’s not a ton of attention on me, and there’s not a huge amount of pressure to avoid failure.