Thread by @eriktorenberg

Wealth creation & status creation are actually similar:

You invent the car, & you create new jobs

You invent basketball, & you create new status opportunities

But car *negotiations* & b-ball *tournaments* are zero-sum

Keep inventing , + you'll create enough $ & status for all

https://twitter.com/naval/status/951532921856249856

The fallacy is comparing wealth *creation* to status *negotiation*, b/c it implies that status is uniquely zero-sum.

Like wealth competitions, status competitions(/negotiations) are zero-sum, but inventing new games/communities is positive-sum (creates new opps for status)

What ppl don't get abt non-zero sumness is that it creates surplus, leading to zero-sum behaviors *within* the NZS context, AKA fights over surplus you wouldn't have had otherwise

Humans aren't gonna get over their need to play status games

Just make more games so all can win

in the same way that people aren't going to get over their desire to win business negotiations in zero-sum ways.

Just make more businesses so all can win, or, more precisely, so you can fight over distributing the surplus you wouldn't have had otherwise

"Pursue wealth, not status" belies the irony that wealth creation is perhaps the biggest status game there is

It's a status game that creates more opportunities for positive-sum status games (within which zero-sum games can be played over the surplus...)

The cycle continues