Status Games
Competition for social position and hierarchical standing within a group or society.
Also known as: Status competition, Social status games, Hierarchy games
Category: Psychology & Mental Models
Tags: psychology, social-psychology, status, competition, zero-sum-games
Explanation
Status games are the ongoing competitions humans engage in to establish, maintain, or improve their position in social hierarchies. Unlike wealth creation, which can be positive-sum (your gain doesn't require my loss), status is inherently zero-sum: there's only one top position, and rising in rank necessarily means others fall relatively. Status games manifest in countless ways: competing for job titles, accumulating followers, displaying achievements, name-dropping connections, one-upping in conversations, or signaling membership in elite groups. While some status competition motivates genuine achievement, much of it is purely positional - effort spent on relative standing rather than absolute improvement. The problem with status games is their futility: you can win locally but the game never ends, new hierarchies always emerge, and the hedonic boost from status gains quickly fades. Naval Ravikant distinguishes status games (zero-sum, competitive) from wealth games (positive-sum, creative): playing status games means attacking others, while wealth games mean building things. Recognizing status games helps you: opt out of competitions that don't serve your goals, focus on absolute rather than relative progress, and avoid the trap of measuring yourself against constantly shifting benchmarks.
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