I get what you’re saying here (I do live in DC) but I generally think that the returns to “just being a simpler person” (simple in the complexity sense, not the euphemism-for-dumb sense) are deeply underrated.
One of my biggest lessons from being a bartender and waiter in DC is that genuinely prioritizing giving a guest the best answer on which wine to order, even if it resulted in a lower price point for that bottle, generally resulted in a higher total tip amount at the end of the night. People trust you more, at least in American society, if you’re just, like, trying to be honest and give your true best guesses.
This generalized to a hilarious degree to working in management consulting—I assert that a huge reason of why McKinsey is higher prestige than Booz Allen (I worked at both places) is that Booz Allen culture encourages a lot more self-serving behavior, and McKinsey culture encourages serving the best interests for your client, and this affects how people relate to you in a pretty fundamental way.
I get what you’re saying here (I do live in DC) but I generally think that the returns to “just being a simpler person” (simple in the complexity sense, not the euphemism-for-dumb sense) are deeply underrated.
One of my biggest lessons from being a bartender and waiter in DC is that genuinely prioritizing giving a guest the best answer on which wine to order, even if it resulted in a lower price point for that bottle, generally resulted in a higher total tip amount at the end of the night. People trust you more, at least in American society, if you’re just, like, trying to be honest and give your true best guesses.
This generalized to a hilarious degree to working in management consulting—I assert that a huge reason of why McKinsey is higher prestige than Booz Allen (I worked at both places) is that Booz Allen culture encourages a lot more self-serving behavior, and McKinsey culture encourages serving the best interests for your client, and this affects how people relate to you in a pretty fundamental way.