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I agree with this. Since any path to becoming high status attracts heavy gate keeping quickly (essentially clearing that path for people who have high status to
by Udo 6y ago
I agree with this. Since any path to becoming high status attracts heavy gate keeping quickly (essentially clearing that path for people who have high status to begin with) it seems reasonable that people try to "hide" in low status niches where there are way fewer predators.
I think success here is somewhat incidental. No doubt the vast majority of niche workers are pursuing non-viable careers, a minority can just about wring a living from it, and a vanishingly small part will actually see some measure of success - upon which that path too will close off quickly, both due to masses of people flocking to follow those footsteps and active gate keeping by value-extracting entities.
Implicit in this model, there is a dark timeline where there are always many more people than there are opportunities. Since this system of exploring possible paths and then closing them off to the lower masses is so extremely effective, eventually every single niche will be flooded with overqualified eager young upper-class people who are just perfectly networked for success, and even though they are so many there are still untold thousands more of hopeless dregs below every single one of them.
- nickthemagicman 6y agoTech is nice because it's tedious and can be difficult and for rich high status people, an easier quicker way to more guaranteed status is Medicine or Law. Your summary is both a good point and a little chilling. I've always wondered in Capitalism how this concept of a JOB for people to have a living wage is sustainable in modern times. Much less for people to innovate and thrive.
- bonecrusher2102 6y agoI'd contend that getting licence to practice law or medicine is neither quick nor easy. Tech definitely has a lower barrier to entry and has plenty of positions that are far less tedious than equivalent (in terms of pay and status) careers in law and medicine.
- dr-detroit 6y agoTech workers have to contend with innovation obsoleting their skills, H1Bs undercutting them, and status/prestige is always awarded proportional to one's shrewdness/being a huge braggart. I worked for a very successful private law practice for 2 lawyers and their entire world was about mingling with other elites they never had to learn a new thing that's for the "clerks" who had 0 status.
- nickthemagicman 6y agoI think there's much higher status in the average person in law or medicine versus the average tech person. I don't think you can really have that same kind of status in tech without building something very significant which typically takes years of experience.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y agoIt's striking just how few billionaires come from genuinely low-status backgrounds. Gates, Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Buffet, and so on were not born dirt poor. And those that do invariably either had a scene they could grow into - like Steve Jobs orbiting around HP and landing at Atari in his earliest days, which wouldn't have happened if he'd been living in (say) Idaho. Or they have some questionable connections and history - Russian oligarchs being the ideal examples, although there are others.
- madaxe_again 6y agoThe causality perhaps isn’t as clear cut as you might think. Folks who come from a high status background tend to be more willing to do low status things, because doing so doesn’t undermine their status, which comes from elsewhere.
- bluedino 6y agoTo be fair, Idaho Jobs would have hopped into the first VW bus going to California.
- haagen 6y agoWhen your family is extremely well off, it can lead to the real or subconscious understanding that there is no long term downside to failure. Money will come to you anyhow eventually. I rarely hear the argument that the USA needs gov funded heath care, BECAUSE it would be good for entrepreneurs. It's a bit like being part of a wealthy family :)
- poulsbohemian 6y agoJR Simplot was the wealthiest man in Idaho for a long time, and if I recall correctly didn't get through high school and was the perfect model for the kind of low-status signaling addressed above.