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> A small proportion of a big pie can be much more filling than a large proportion of a small pie. That works for pies, but not necessarily for human psycholog

> A small proportion of a big pie can be much more filling than a large proportion of a small pie. That works for pies, but not necessarily for human psychology. Rationally, yes, you'd prefer to have more in absolute value, but humans are not rational - they work on relative comparisons. Having more of a small pie gives you an advantage in mate selection, influence (political/social) and options. So the richest man in a village that has $X is probably happier than the wall-street banker that has $10X but is surrounded by people who have $100X. That's just how our psychology works.

ObserverNeutral 6y ago
> So the richest man in a village that has $X is probably happier than the wall-street banker that has $10X but is surrounded by people who have $100X The internet and widespread access to statistics and lifestyle content has sort of ruined that. The guy in the village is happy as long as he doesn't turn the TV on, or goes on forbes.com to take a look at the billionaires index
- medvezhenok 6y ago
  Not exactly, since there still has to be a proximity effect. You might see rich people on TV, but you're not in direct competition with them for anything. It's about your relative standing with regards to people who you actually compare yourselves to (like other people around your rank in the dating markets, for example)
  - ObserverNeutral 6y ago
    Of course you are in direct competition. Look at the village boss net worth vs Bezos. We all measure our success with net worth in dollars. That plus the internet changed the game. Now we approximately know each person net worth and especially the net worth of the leaders in the standings. Also just because Bezos is not around the village to steal your girl doesn't mean you don't think and predict what would happen if he were to come to the village and hit on your girl.

ObserverNeutral 6y ago

> So the richest man in a village that has $X is probably happier than the wall-street banker that has $10X but is surrounded by people who have $100X The internet and widespread access to statistics and lifestyle content has sort of ruined that. The guy in the village is happy as long as he doesn't turn the TV on, or goes on forbes.com to take a look at the billionaires index

medvezhenok 6y ago
Not exactly, since there still has to be a proximity effect. You might see rich people on TV, but you're not in direct competition with them for anything. It's about your relative standing with regards to people who you actually compare yourselves to (like other people around your rank in the dating markets, for example)
- ObserverNeutral 6y ago
  Of course you are in direct competition. Look at the village boss net worth vs Bezos. We all measure our success with net worth in dollars. That plus the internet changed the game. Now we approximately know each person net worth and especially the net worth of the leaders in the standings. Also just because Bezos is not around the village to steal your girl doesn't mean you don't think and predict what would happen if he were to come to the village and hit on your girl.