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23 May, 4 tweets, 2 min read
"you must play a complex guessing game in which you act as though attending your Ivy League school were a Shameful and Horrible Secret, while simultaneously making it obvious which Ivy League school you attended...it’s about subtle class signaling." washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/…
Nick Carraway telling the reader, "I graduated from New Haven in 1915" is an early example of this
Buried signals communicate information only to intended recipients. Only those "in the know" would understand "Boston" is coded language. This allows the speaker to identify other insiders while not attracting unwanted attention or being seen as a snob
Some years ago I was at a casino outside of Corning (poor town in California) w/my sister. She tells the dealer that I'm a student at Yale. The dealer casts a skeptical look and says "Why would you be here?" I just wanted to play cards

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More from @robkhenderson

Rob Henderson Profile picture
3 May
Fascinating essay from 1987 on Soviet youth, just a couple of years before the collapse of the USSR nytimes.com/1987/07/26/mag…
"years of eroding official credibility...Gorbachev's efforts to revive the Soviet Union depend on his ability to engage the young...The country's young are—not universally, but in sufficient quantity to spell trouble—spoiled, alienated, and indifferent"
"Soviet analysts have discovered a general failure of the institutions designed to mold Russian children into bright-eyed young Socialists. Komsomol [communist youth organization] doesn't work, school doesn't work, the army doesn't work, even work doesn't work."
Read 8 tweets
Rob Henderson Profile picture
11 Apr
The Sopranos is about American decline, evident in the outcomes of the young male characters

Jackie Aprile involved in organized crime, botches a robbery, ends up dead

Chris Moltisanti hooked on drugs, drives while intoxicated & murdered

AJ suffers depression & panic attacks
In any other show, the main young character would show promise and gradually rise within the organization. In this one, Chris Moltisanti succumbed to addiction, had an absentee father, and his boomer uncle stymies his dreams of becoming a screenwriter before killing Chris
Christopher Moltisanti betrayed his fiancé in favor of his job, and his boss ends up killing him
Read 4 tweets
Rob Henderson Profile picture
5 Mar
In dictatorships, extravagant flattery for the leader is a costly demonstration of loyalty

But flattery creates problems for the leader. If everyone is praises you, how do you know who is truly on your side?

Hard to tell cheap talk from true devotion /1
journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.101…
This has been called the “dictator’s dilemma.” It’s hard for a dictator to know who supports him if everyone says they love him

The dictator wants costly, reliable indicators of your support /2
You can’t just say he’s a good dude. You have to say he’s extraordinary. He can climb the walls like Spider-Man. He can disappear and reappear in another location

Signaling spirals emerge. People build monuments and gigantic images dedicated to the dictator in public squares /3
Read 23 tweets
Rob Henderson Profile picture
14 Feb
Henrich refers to the "Big-5" as the "WEIRD-5" because researchers have failed to identify the 5 personality configurations in non-student adult populations in Bolivia, Ghana, Kenya, Laos, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Macedonia, among other non-WEIRD locations
The Tsimane, a farmer-forager community, showed only 2 dimensions of personality that didn't quite map onto any of the Big-5:

Interpersonal prosociality: Inclination to cultivate rich social relationships

Industriousness: Working hard on useful skills like weaving and hunting
When there are few social niches available, and less emphasis on cultivating unique individual attributes, then people tend to be more similar to one another

When there are many options and social niches and individualism is prized, then differences between people magnify
Read 4 tweets
Rob Henderson Profile picture
23 Jan
"implications of this research were clear. To induce men to buy diamonds for women, advertising should focus on the emotional impact of the 'surprise' gift transaction...expectation that a 'gift of love' would enhance his standing in the eyes of a woman" theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
"advertising agency...suggested offering stories and society photographs to selected magazines and newspapers which would reinforce the link between diamonds and romance. Stories would stress the size of diamonds that celebrities presented to their loved ones."
"Promote the diamond as one material object which can reflect, in a very personal way, a man's success in life...campaign addressed to upwardly mobile men, advertisements ideally should have the aroma of tweed, old leather and polished wood which is characteristic of a good club"
Read 4 tweets
Rob Henderson Profile picture
23 Dec 20
Best books I read in 2020

1. Atomic Habits by @JamesClear

“If you show up at the gym 5 days in a row—even for 2 minutes—you're casting votes for your new identity. You’re not worried about getting in shape. Youre focused on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts”
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings

amzn.to/3nJqB4c

2. “social anxiety is overwhelmingly common. Natural selection shaped us to care enormously what other people think..We constantly monitor how much others value us..Low self-esteem is a signal to try harder to please others”
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

amzn.to/39iSqJP

“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents...Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without a believe in a devil.”
Read 23 tweets

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