the 4 levels of social skill: THREAD

level 0 - clueless: don't know what you don't know. The social world is a mystery, you mostly do what you feel like. You can be pretty self-confident and happy at this level but level-3s find you "cringe". Some autism-spectrum folks go here

1 - shy. You're aware enough of the social sphere to grasp how much you *don't* get it. The worst level. If you have friends they're other level-1's, with whom you bond over easier-to-grok things like chess and may form a worldview of how much "cool people suck". Me, high school.

2 - fluent. Popular society is your space and you and your friends understand and play the social game effortlessly. The lower levels are cringey and seem like aliens to you; how do they not understand such *obvious* things about how the world works??

3 - leader. Usually an ascended level-1, though level-0's sometimes teleport here by accident. While 1's and 2's are confined to their class, the leader isn't. They can kick it with the 2's, bring the 1's out of their shell and just enjoy the 0's.

My impression of the postrat space is that most people started out as 1's. Rationalism is a very 0-1 space: explicit, pedantic, explanatory. But the Social Game calls to 1's; we see what we're missing. It looks to me like a lot of the people here are on a journey to discover it.

But ascending 1's have a choice to make: which level are you gunning for? Some manage to assimilate into the existing 2's: easiest if you have something normies want, like physical beauty. @inihelene seems like a good example of this final form

Some create their *own* 2's stratum where they're locally fluent but still a bit at odds with popular normies. "ingroup" goes here, the @eigenrobot/ @acidshill/ @ollybot_redux etc clique. Friendlier than real 2's but still a bit imposing, trading witticisms built on their rat past.

Meanwhile @visakanv has fully adopted level 3. I don't think i have to explain this, it is known.

Myself, i feel like a 1.x. I'm on the path, the path splits, and all the forks call to me. I could make a go at any of them and at different times i already have. This thread is me putting that conflict into words and reminding myself which end-state i most admire. /END

erratum: in the very first tweet, "level 3" should be "level 2."