Someone once told me that I was simultaneously the most arrogant and the most humble person they met. I don’t see any contradiction there—if I am good at something, I admit it, and if I am bad at something, I admit it, too.
Seems like most people avoid both, and prefer to appear mediocre. Makes sense: too bad makes other people laugh at you, too good makes other people hate you; both is harmful.
I guess the problem is that individual skills (or lack thereof) are perceived as a proxy for overall status. Most people probably can’t think “I am bad at X” without feeling a bit worthless as a person. Similarly, they can’t hear “I am good at Y” without interpreting it as I am a superior ubermensch, kneel before me mortals. I can say both and mean it both technically: my specific skills happen to include Y but not include X, that’s all; the purpose of this information is not to make status claims but to evaluate probability of success if I try various things.
I think the usual strategy is to provide credentials. Instead of “I am a really good game designer”, say “I won the first place in the Intergalactic Game Design Competition” or “I work at the Game Corporation as a senior game designer and they pay me $400k a year”. Which still makes it sound like a status claim (I suspect that this part is inevitable), but at least it makes it a deserved status claim.
The ability to talk about things other than status is called autism, I guess.
Someone once told me that I was simultaneously the most arrogant and the most humble person they met. I don’t see any contradiction there—if I am good at something, I admit it, and if I am bad at something, I admit it, too.
Seems like most people avoid both, and prefer to appear mediocre. Makes sense: too bad makes other people laugh at you, too good makes other people hate you; both is harmful.
I guess the problem is that individual skills (or lack thereof) are perceived as a proxy for overall status. Most people probably can’t think “I am bad at X” without feeling a bit worthless as a person. Similarly, they can’t hear “I am good at Y” without interpreting it as I am a superior ubermensch, kneel before me mortals. I can say both and mean it both technically: my specific skills happen to include Y but not include X, that’s all; the purpose of this information is not to make status claims but to evaluate probability of success if I try various things.
I think the usual strategy is to provide credentials. Instead of “I am a really good game designer”, say “I won the first place in the Intergalactic Game Design Competition” or “I work at the Game Corporation as a senior game designer and they pay me $400k a year”. Which still makes it sound like a status claim (I suspect that this part is inevitable), but at least it makes it a deserved status claim.
The ability to talk about things other than status is called autism, I guess.