I think “The Wannabe Rational” signaled humility (rather effectively).
When what you know already is a status symbol, acknowledging genuine ignorance would say nothing good about you at all, although if you have immense local credibility and can disguise the question as a test of someone else’s knowledge, asking questions could be a signal (if it looks like you’re wielding authority to pass judgment on others’ knowledge) or a countersignal (if it looks like you’re using your question to poke holes in someone else’s position). When wanting to know things is the status symbol, asking any questions that don’t indicate you’ve done next to no homework will tend to signal medium to high status depending on how difficult they are.
Perhaps the title would have been better as “Audiences To Whom You Can’t Countersignal”, but that just has no punch to it.
I think “The Wannabe Rational” signaled humility (rather effectively).
When what you know already is a status symbol, acknowledging genuine ignorance would say nothing good about you at all, although if you have immense local credibility and can disguise the question as a test of someone else’s knowledge, asking questions could be a signal (if it looks like you’re wielding authority to pass judgment on others’ knowledge) or a countersignal (if it looks like you’re using your question to poke holes in someone else’s position). When wanting to know things is the status symbol, asking any questions that don’t indicate you’ve done next to no homework will tend to signal medium to high status depending on how difficult they are.
Perhaps the title would have been better as “Audiences To Whom You Can’t Countersignal”, but that just has no punch to it.