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> and increasing your social standing As a scrappy programmer who spends a lot of hours each week working in solitude on projects, I know I would simply fail
by orthoganol 10y ago
> and increasing your social standing
As a scrappy programmer who spends a lot of hours each week working in solitude on projects, I know I would simply fail in my pursuits if I cared in any deep, identifying way about "social status." It's the type of mindset I've been trying to escape for years after attending an elite university that had an annoyingly sizable amount of people with 'country club' mindsets (albeit a country club of smart people). I just personally think there are pretty strict limits on the amount of success you can achieve if you find it too difficult to depart with a mindset of maintaining social status. It will endanger your independent thinking in subtle ways, as well as the sincerity of your motivations. Pretty sure even YC is on alert about founders who are interested in the 'social status' that goes with having a YC startup, for good reasons.
- Swizec 10y agoCalling yourself a scrappy programmer and denouncing social standing improves your social standing with other programmers. Surprise, we're social animals, we care deeply and intrinsically about this crap. Best to embrace it and understand it for what it is. That way at least you're in control. There are a lot of pragmatic benefits that come from having good social standing. Everything from an emotional support structure when things go wrong, to ease of accessing resources when you need them. For example: if you alienate everyone around you and destroy your social standing, then nobody will help you when your startup blows up and you're about to get kicked out on the street. You'll need a couch to crash on for a few days, but nobody to ask for it.