

Hacking status (linked from an interesting HN discussion) - andrewljohnson
http://greenlightwiki.com/improv/Status

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dskhatri
Unfortunately, I have seen these status-hacking methods work outside the
improv/acting world. In a large company, the smarter but quiet and submissive
employee will lose out to the obnoxious, high-sounding more social one. In
social circles, the loud person A who pokes fun at B gains the attention and
admiration of the crowd. Pick up artists often use the technique of lowering
their target's self-esteem as a method of gaining alpha-status, respect and
ultimately winning over their target.

I find it disturbing and often battle with the fact that these superficial
methods actually work and can affect a person's ability to get ahead. At one
of the previous startup schools, I think I remember that the theme around PG's
talk was "be good". It's disturbing because using some of these methods to
raise one's status feels "anti-good" and counter-intuitive.

~~~
rphlx
It's probably leftover from some stage of human evolution where it minimized
physical violence. Most people are vulnerable (including hackers); exploiting
it can be a direct or indirect reproductive advantage, and so it may never
evolve away. "good" vs "bad" is irrelevant if it's successful.

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keefe
Penalty for failure should also be considered. If you play a game like this
and someone notices what you are doing, that person will lose all respect for
you. I had a boss once that had read some article on
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirroring_(psychology)> and how it makes people
more comfortable with you. Similarly with people who try to live by the "rules
of power" and all this other nonsense. How about not playing games and
focusing on achieving something? If I am working for someone I acknowledge
this gives them a certain authority, but I really want to see reason prevail
and progress made towards a common goal - I just would really rather not
interact with people who play games with me unless I have to.

~~~
bkovitz
Actually, status (as described on that page) is something you _play_ , moment
to moment. You are giving off a signal of "don't come near me, I bite" or
"don't bite me, I'm not worth the trouble" or something somewhere in between,
every second that you interact in person with someone else. Unlike stupid
tricks like "mirroring", giving off status signals is not something you can
stop doing. What you can do, though, is become more aware of it, better able
to modulate it. Socially adept people are _very_ good at varying their status
moment by moment. For many of them, it's probably not even conscious.

The main reason an actor needs to learn about status is to be able to make
scenes _realistic_. When the characters don't have a status relationship, a
scene looks wooden and fake.

BTW, playing high status is not necessarily better. People who relentlessly
play high status in every situation are commonly called "assholes". (Usually
behind their backs.)

~~~
keefe
It's not something you have to play. Some of the dominant behaviors such as
disinterest etc. are a result of your current state - I'm preoccupied with an
important problem and not interested in other people, for example. Mirroring
also happens naturally under certain circumstances. There are certainly
subconscious things like this that come out- but the minute you decide to
"play" status and deliberately take an action because of your status game and
you get caught, whoever you are playing loses absolutely all respect for you.
You've also got a much higher chance for failure with the people you really
need (as they will be competent). I don't care to be manipulated whatsoever
and I don't care about hierarchical power structures or power games that
dominate many lives. All I (and many other people) care about is advancing our
goals - if I work for someone, I am going to behave differently because I am
working towards their goals, not mine - but I expect all my professional
interactions to be goal oriented or problem oriented.

~~~
bkovitz
I wonder if we're having a Violent Agreement.

I'm not saying that you have to consciously play status ("decide to play").
I'm saying that when you interact with someone else, you _are_ playing a
certain level of status in relation to them, whether you are aware of it or
not.

Engaging in some phony behavior will, of course, make people perceive you as a
phony, with all the loss of respect that that entails. Respect, of course, is
a big part of status. When you don't respect someone, you tend to play higher
status toward them.

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koevet
It's interesting to notice that the page comes from a wiki about
improvisational theater. Those are tips for a comedian or someone who acts on
some sort of stage. I guess that's the reason they can so easily applied to
everyday life.

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adrianwaj
high status behavior involves feeling good without concern for the other

low status behavior involves feeling bad in order to make another feel good

raising another's status involves making another feel good without concern for
yourself

lowering another's status involves making another feel bad in order to feel
good

\-- keep away from bosses that expect status raising behaviors from their
employees to themselves, especially when the reverse is warranted.

~~~
andrewljohnson
Good managers spend a lot of time raising the status of their wards.

~~~
adrianwaj
It's an interesting way to look at the world, and workplaces function a lot
like the animal kingdom, but as humans we should be able to see through status
with our spirituality.

~~~
zackattack
How?

~~~
adrianwaj
You work it out on your quest.

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bkovitz
Wow, so this is where this new influx of traffic to my wiki came from!

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zackattack
Although these are useful tips and perhaps quite accurate, I don't know if you
can truly hack status. I'm not sure what causes status - something reptilian,
I guess - and I think that there's only so long that you can micromanage it
before its true nature manifests. (Whether you are low-status and pretending
to be high status, or high status and pretending to be low-status.)

How to fundamentally change your status identity is a more difficult question
and one that I don't have the answer to.

~~~
camccann
Don't underestimate how much of social status really _is_ nothing but
behavior, by which I loosely mean everything that can be "faked". In other
words, pretend long enough and you'll become the role you're playing.

How much status you can grab that way depends on the extent to which status in
a given group depends on objective, un-fakeable traits. If you want to assert
status in a wealthy crowd, you need some amount of money to be credible. In a
crowd of programmers, knowing something about coding is required. Among
athletes you need to be able to keep up physically.

Otherwise, it's pretty much all hackable.

