Adam Smith’s two paths to being loved:

We enact our status all the time. Everyday encounters follow status scripts, which we all recognize. Psychologists do not know how status affects behavior when people are alone, but we know a lot about how status works when people behave together. ~ Susan Fiske

It’s my experience that ultimate mindset to cultivate & strive for every single day in order to maximize relationships, happiness and productivity is to be: Loving, and realistic, and hardworking. That’s the trifecta.

Envy…consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations…. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I dare say, envied Hercules, who never existed. ~ Bertrand Russell

Some status games are worth playing - as long as they're not cosmetic or temporary. Virtues such as integrity, depth, and continuity are worth pursuing even if no one else is looking. h/t Sherry theplurisociety.com/p/transcending…

"If we naturally use 90% of our brainpower for dealing with people, it’s hard to argue that our brains evolved primarily for tools." ~ David Pinsof everythingisbullshit.blog/p/you-will-fin…

High status opens more doors in life and makes cooperation with others easier - no surprise we seek it. Yet, admitting our desire for status makes us look insecure and, therefore, low status. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…

We are all blind until something starts to hurt. Then we smarten up and learn the lesson. But what if we could absorb these lessons before they start to punish us with pain, crisis or worse? ~ Isabel🌻 open.substack.com/pub/mindmine/p…

"Stalin was a serious intellectual who valued ideas as much as power...Stalin, then, presents a challenge to anyone who claims a specific link between deep reading and the pursuit of ethical or social virtue." unherd.com/2022/02/the-em…

The initial discomfort when focusing is the gateway to deeper concentration, not a barrier. There are no secret doors to flow, just a wading through sewage before we reach clear water.

"envy—an emotion that motivates individuals to monitor their surroundings, assess the prosperity of others, and seek the eradication of status divergence—plays a key role in radicalization...enviers get pleasure from the suffering of the envied" link.springer.com/article/10.100…).

Being unaware of another’s status makes us less ready to think we’re better than others. This compact slowly erodes when we all converge to the same digital town squares - and the same status games.

"Our daily wage worker is submissive and harbors an extreme inferiority complex, addressing you with “sir” in every sentence. However, if you afford him respect and a seat at a table, he transforms into a roaring tyrant." lewrockwell.com/2023/12/jayant…

We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that, in the end, we become disguised to ourselves. ~ François de La Rochefoucauld, 1665

Writing converts your ideas from vague to bad. But once they're written down you can at least see and fix the badness.

~Steven Pinker on what he’s learned from evolutionary psychology:

See beyond games

"Envy can covert...if you find yourself reacting badly when you see a person announce they’ve just published their first book or started their own business, pay attention. Your unconscious is telling you that you have the desire to do something like this"