STATUS: Does Our Need for It Explain ... Everything?

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2022

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Life is a game. There’s no way to understand the human world without first understanding this. Everyone alive is playing a game whose hidden rules are built into us and that silently directs our thoughts, beliefs and actions. This game is inside us. It is us. We can’t help but play.” So begins “The Status Game,” a new book by acclaimed writer Will Storr. He continues: “We play for status, if only subtly, with every social interaction, every contribution we make to work, love or family life and every internet post. We play with how we dress, how we speak and what we believe. … Life is not a journey towards a perfect destination. It’s a game that never ends. And it’s the very worst of us.” Does it have to be? We may not be able to quit the status game, but Will says we can learn to play it better. In this episode, he explains how. --- Download The Next Big Idea app today at nextbigideaclub.com/app/

Transcript

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0:00.0	LinkedIn presents.
0:30.0	I'm joined in the virtual studio today by my producer, Caleb Bissinger.
0:41.6	Well, I mean, I'm always here. I just don't always have my microphone turned on.
0:45.9	That's right. But I ask you to leave it on today because the two of us cannot stop talking about
0:51.0	the book that today's episode is all about. It's really impacted by thinking, Caleb, and I think it
0:56.6	may have also impacted you. Yeah, no, absolutely. So on the show today, Rufus is going to be speaking
1:02.7	with a brilliant British writer named Will Store. And we've been following Will's work for a while now.
1:09.2	I think Rufus, you read his book, Selfie, which is all about why we're so hopelessly narcissistic.
1:14.6	I'm obsessed with this book he published in 2019 called The Science Storytelling, which is,
1:20.0	I don't think an exaggeration to say the best book I've ever read about writing, and I have read
1:24.2	a lot of them. And Will is something of a star over in the UK. He hits bestseller lists, the
1:30.9	Times of London called him one of the best journalists of ideas. But he's not quite as well-known
1:37.2	in the US. I think that I could change Caleb thanks to his new book The Status Game on Human Life
1:43.3	and how to play it, which I read with relish. His thesis is that our brains were, quote,
1:49.5	designed by evolution to seek connection and rank to be accepted into groups and win status
1:55.5	within them. This is the game of human life. And you can't not play that game, right?
2:02.3	That's the tricky part. It's involuntary. We are all constantly measuring our status and trying to
2:07.7	increase it. Will says, the only feasible way to opt out is to seek an empty room and stay in it.
2:14.9	And frankly, I'm not even sure that would work. You cannot escape the status game. You can't win
2:20.0	it either because the more status you get, the more you want, and the more you have to lose.
2:24.7	And I think we should pause and say, you know, some listeners may be thinking, hold on a second
2:28.9	reverse, that can't be true because I don't care about status. I'm not obsessed with fame or
	...

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