Investing psum.vc, media joincolossus.com

Listened to @patrick-oshag's pod ep w Tyler Cowen this morn. All day I've been thinking abt his claim that status games are rarely the games that matter.

Is there a category of ppl for whom status games are a net good (for society, goals, fulfillment)? What characterizes them?

Seems like status games would be a category that covers activities past which basic needs are met. That’s probably too broad, but (if not) activities beyond basic needs should be core to progress, so important for society

More concretely, legacy seems like a status game so philanthropists are probably good bet. Hard to know on net of course. And I love convos with Tyler so he’s undoubtably right but depends on what kind of status “goods” we’re taking about. Great question

TIL! Another kinda related thought is status games are probably most widespread and intense in places where social hierarchies are most contested (e.g., US more than Europe) because social position “radar” is hard wired (to your chicken point). 

So, we’d expect to see better social gamers here compared to Europe

Interestingly, status games in the animal kingdom emerged out of scarce environments (which chicken eats first in the pecking order, which lion gets to mate w the lioness), but totally agree that it's now flipped. Status "goods" are a nice distinction