Yellow! – That’s a color and a way of saying hi.
This week I want to talk about some of the ideas that have been on my mind the last few weeks. I am going to keep this week simple because I have many-a-task to complete this week. Let’s just relax together and share some ideas.
I have two ideas that I would like to focus on today–social currency and my theory of “minimum perceived impact”
First, I want to talk about school. I have been thinking a lot about education… too much about education. I have let it take over my life actually…
Having written the last few sentences, I have come to a realization about the power that I have given education over my life recently, but that is not the focus of this blog today…
I just started my second semester of college, and I want to highlight the beauty of pursuing education, more specifically traditional education. What college has done for me, even before a degree is remarkable
I have just started my second semester of college. Feeling the energy of the campus, seeing all of the knowledge, and having access to as many resources as I have time is simply indescribable. Honestly, I am slightly overwhelmed because there are endless opportunities in front of me and countless interesting people to meet, and I already have a full schedule of things that I have committed to. I know that where I am, I can get introduced to any career, find people with many skills, and I can do work (study, network, inquire) without restrictions on space and connection… this is how it feels at least. I do not currently attend any fancy college, but I am still given many resources that were not available to me previously.
Being isolated in a room (as predominates my history) makes it difficult to gauge goals. When the only energy is the internal energy I create, I often lose sight of what I am after and why I am after it. A school full of students getting after it makes it so that I can not forget!
Let’s get into social currency first.
I am sure that there is a whole book devoted to this topic or an analogous, but I have not read that book, and I might not ever read that book. Here is my basic idea:
The idea is that social currency is the money, connections, knowledge or achievement that makes an individual valuable in a population.
There are hierarchies–more on hierarchies in my second idea–that we can get to and these levels compound social value. I have noticed that these hierarchies are influenced by many factors. These will include what an individual can provide (things above) but they can also include age, background, gender, and race… as much popular culture will try to deny their relevance.
“There is a 10-20% that drives the 80%” (Chris Williamson #695 – 43:40) is something that I can not get off my mind. Again, going back to productivity, those that even put 20% more into their work over time will stand out dramatically. Every moment is so precious because it could mean the difference between a “yes” or a “no” that leads to the next evolution along the social hierarchy. The sooner we can develop to the higher levels, the sooner we have more resources to develop further along the hierarchy. This is important to both academic and professional lines. This is what I attribute to those that seem like they are on another plane of reality. They have surpassed the lower levels that most people linger on a long time ago. They can then stop devoting so much cognitive energy to the 80% that does not produce change. They can then devote more of themselves to the valuable 20%. Having to make dinner is necessary, but if we can afford to have someone else prepare our meals, we can do the tasks that are important to our social currency. This is mentioned in Modern Wisdom #713 with Rob Henderson and episode #717 with Jeremy Boering episode (previously mentioned in post #17).
I was writing for one of my essays and I was thinking about the inequality for opportunities distributed to those across the social hierarchy. This is the idea that I named “The Minimum Perceived Impact.”
This is the theory that until one reaches a minimum threshold, their actions do not have enough impact to elicit a social reaction. The basic idea is that those at the bottom are misrepresented in their impact because they focus their time on the 80% mentioned above. Where this threshold is I will leave for another day. I genuinely do not know, and like many theories, when applied in reality, it likely has many contributing factors. This is most interesting because this threshold defines how we write our history, it nominates those that our cultures idolize, and it establishes our politics and our whole social future as a species.
The origin for this theory is the idea that those at the top receive almost all of the recognition because they have the greatest access to opportunities. For example, someone that inherited a large sum of money does not have to work a 9-5 job every week. As a consequence, if they are determined, they can spend that additional 40 hours a week writing a book or doing research or studying… or any task that improves their social currency. Most “everyday people” will never be given the opportunity to apply to their dream university or write a specialty book or start a business. It might seem like common sense, but this is a cruel reality. Realizing the misfortune of the disregarded majority, should I not question how I am impressed? I guess this is just the inequality that comes along with a capitalist system. Being clear, I do not oppose the system. I have just noticed how imbalanced the system can be. Since the human brain draws many comparisons and simplifies information into categories, it can be easy to ignore the mundane lives of most individuals. I think it is alright to ignore, but I believe it is too often that we ascribe inferiority to situations that were predominantly determined by circumstances. On the other side, I fear that we give too much praise to those at the top. Many deserve their accomplishments, but again, circumstances contribute to every outcome. It is simply too harsh for me to accept. Of a thousand examples, I first think of the teen mother, thrust into a life of chaos at an early age. She very well could but might never receive a single accolade or recognition that someone working half as hard for the same company might.
This is the hierarchy of life…
Additionally,
I wanted to quickly mention the idea of a side hustle. This is a popular idea for all the individuals trying to compete in our fierce social and economic world, but I also believe that this is how people have operated for a millenia. There seems to be a natural flow to having a main job and an extracurricular. The job is the consistent routine that allows us to survive and the extracurricular is an independent output that allows us to develop outside or in conjunction to our job. The categories for each are very broad and will vary from individual to individual, but it seems like most people have this lifestyle. Some might have multiple extracurriculars. In this context, I do not know if it is possible to have more than one job. I think after the first, everything else becomes secondary. For a mother it might look like a 9-5 and taking care of the kids. For a young guy it might be being a full time student while writing a blog… Just another idea. My final for the night.
That is all for this week… Do not fear! I will be back next week!
It has been Tristan from HQ… It will always be Tristan. It is time to sleep! Signing off!
Citation
Williamson, Chris, host. “#695 – Codie Sanchez – The Secret Mindset Hack To Become Unstoppable” Modern Wisdom, Spotify, Oct. 2023, https://open.spotify.com/episode/4hky2a3b05G1scBCZp3qmp?si=c01b90ce70894d3e. Accessed 28 Jan. 2024.