How much of human activity is just signalling, posturing, and status jockeying with no purpose I would consider practical. To the point where those behaviours s

How much of human activity is just signalling, posturing, and status jockeying with no purpose I would consider practical. To the point where those behaviours seep into contexts where they're obviously unproductive, like discussions on pseudonymous Internet forums. Robin Hanson has some extensive descriptions[1] of what I mean, with the crucial insight that "X is not about Y"[2], and that rationalization may be the original, evolutionary purpose of rational thinking rather than its perversion[3]. He even offers remedies[4] if you consider it a problem. [1] http://www.overcomingbias.com/tag/signaling http://www.overcomingbias.com/tag/signaling [2] http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/09/politics-isnt-a.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/09/politics-isnt-a.html [3] http://www.overcomingbias.com/2014/04/reason-stories-both-tuned-for-contests.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2014/04/reason-stories-both-tu... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market