This is a good point. To the extent that social competency is zero-sum, we want to learn an exclusive, secret art (I am sure it is not, taken as a whole, for the same reason that trade and cooperation aren’t only zero-sum, but individual skills as actually employed may be).
The desire for powerful secrets biases us—for example, toward accepting nonsense from a cult leader. I’d rather instead include all the available similarly-minded smart people (who may occasional offer fresh insights), even though they would also be my most effective competition.
This is a good point. To the extent that social competency is zero-sum, we want to learn an exclusive, secret art (I am sure it is not, taken as a whole, for the same reason that trade and cooperation aren’t only zero-sum, but individual skills as actually employed may be).
The desire for powerful secrets biases us—for example, toward accepting nonsense from a cult leader. I’d rather instead include all the available similarly-minded smart people (who may occasional offer fresh insights), even though they would also be my most effective competition.
Then perhaps the focus should simply be on the skills that aren’t zero sum? I doubt the majority of non-malicious social skills are zero sum, so...