Read a bunch of @KevinSimler on Social Status today

Will summarize in this thread to make sure I understand

He posits that there are two types of social status

Dominance and Prestige

Dominance is the status we get from intimidating others

The alpha gorilla will beat you up if you're out of line, your boss will fire you, etc

Prestige is the status we get from doing impressive things

Building a startup, being really good at sports or the arts, etc

Dominance is easy to understand because we only need to look at the behavior of the person on top

They use threats and intimidation to control the behavior of others

Prestige is subtler

It only exists because people lower in the status hierarchy admire those with higher status

Looking from the outside, this almost seems illogical

Why would people intentionally give status to someone else?

Prestige-seeking and admiration behaviors are "teaming instincts"

By staying in a group, the members get more benefit than being outside

It's possible that, without the Prestige system of social status, group-level cooperation might simply be impossible

There are too many incentives to defect