Today, I read about a guy who writes a Substack newsletter about parenting, and it’s made him a celebrity throughout his neighborhood.
Well, it wasn’t really the newsletter.
Rather, it was a specific fact about his own parenting success, which he revealed inside the newsletter. This one fact spread like wildfire among his neighbors, and soon everyone knew him, or at least wanted to. For example, when the guy got his hair cut last week, the following conversation went down:
“Hey, I know you, don’t I?”
“What? How’s that?”
“You’re the guy who has two sons at Harvard.”
“Yeah, that’s me.”
Status. All of us are aware of it. And the most pure of us all quest after it like Galahad after the Holy Grail.
I’m not saying anything new here. But here’s an unrelated idea, which might be new to you, and which can help you if you quest after status:
Don’t give too much proof. Argumentation and proof are sure ways to put a ceiling on how authoritative you seem and how much status you have.
“This guy sounds like a leader… but why does he have to buttress his claims with evidence and explain everything in so much detail? Something’s off.”
So cut down on the proof and avoid ruining or hampering your status.
And as with all things authority, things go in both directions. In other words, you can also get a quick and cheap boost in status simply by refusing to make an adequate argument for the claims you’re making.
You might think I’ll just leave that claim hanging as a way of demonstrating my point.
Not so.
For one thing, I’m actively avoiding pursuing status. I have other ideas of how I want to get into people’s heads.
For another thing, none of what I told you is really my idea. I don’t mind telling you I heard it all from Rich Schefren.
So if you want proof for what I just told you, you should haunt Rich, and see if maybe he slips up into explaining why he believes all the stuff I just told you. If you don’t know Rich, you can get to know him here: