Stats for nerds
1recommend
3mentions
2people
2010–2011years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- There is an entire book about this: Choosing the Right Pond: Human Behavior and the Quest for Status.
http://www.amazon.com/Choosing-Right-Pond-Behavior-Status/dp...
It's been a while since I read it, but it was quite interesting. The author presents an economic model to explain status-seeking behavior and how it affects, for example, wages. It presents a model why "super star" performers don't get paid what they're worth (He models it as a subsidy to those below them, who would leave for a different firm if they were at the bottom of the hierarchy).
- Rather than increased competition, I think the reason we are not happier is that wealth levels have risen for all classes[1]. Materially we are better off than our ancestors but relatively speaking we are the same.
Most people would prefer to have higher status than higher wealth. For details, I recommend the excellent book "Choosing the Right Pond: Human Behavior and the Quest for Status" by economist Robert H. Frank. http://www.amazon.com/Choosing-Right-Pond-Behavior-Status/dp...
[1] There is no question that we are all materially better off than previous generations. However considering the 30 years of stagnating middle class incomes, whether this will be true in the future is up for debate. If the middle class starts declining relative to the super-rich expect major unhappiness.
- This is not just in the programming business. Highly productive employees are generally underpaid relative to their peers. In his book, "Choosing the Right Pond", the economist Robert H. Frank attributes this to status-seeking. Short version: the highly paid employee could make more elsewhere, but then they wouldn't be the the big fish in the small pond anymore. On the flip side, the relatively low-productivity employee may be overpaid in compensation for the shame of being the worst programmer on the team.
