A reader finds it difficult to distinguish between the contextual and structural elements of rank in the socio-sexual hierarchy: How do you ...
A reader finds it difficult to distinguish between the contextual and structural elements of rank in the socio-sexual hierarchy:
Even an Omega King is going to behave in socially off-putting manners. Even the most junior Alpha is going to retain his self-confidence. A Gamma is not going to stop being bitter and seeking to ferret out the ulterior motives of those around him just because he happens to be the most popular and attractive man in the social circle. Indeed, some of the great tragedies of history can be traced back to Gammas somehow managing to put themselves in positions of great power.
An Alpha isn't going to lose his shit when he is disrespected by someone he regards as an equal or a superior, on or off the Internet. A Gamma is always going to lose it, although in person he might - might - have just enough sense to conceal it. But you can bet that he will spend the next month plotting dozens of revenge scenarios and concocting even more witty parting shots that would have totally destroyed the offending party.
Consider the very different reactions of dc.sunsets and Casher O'Neill to being publicly called out. Dc shrugged and took it. Casher sperged out in a classic butthurt fashion. Did you really find it terribly hard to distinguish their reactions, or discern their probable ranks in the hierarchy?
The importance of the SSH is in its ability to serve as a predictive model. For example, I now seek to avoid working with gammas, because they simply cannot take criticism without going into lengthy funks and they find it very hard to respect organizational structure. They often try to undermine their superiors and leap the chain of command, and when they quit, they often like to do so at a time when it will cause maximum distruption. By the same token, I don't want too many Alphas, because they end up wasting time on intra-organizational pissing matches instead of actually doing anything productive.
How do you account for context in your model? For example, one trait shared by your alpha and gamma archetype is narcissism. When someone gets disrespected in real life they change their response depending on who disrespected them, which tells you something about their relative rank - e.g. Check out Bas Rutten's run in with Brian Urlacher (assuming Rutten is telling it like it happened, old mate seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't let the truth get in the way of a good yarn). On the internet there's none of that so won't an alpha and a gamma look similar - they'll both lose their shit when they think they've been disrespected?I don't quite understand the difficulty in grasping that while rank is always relative, the underlying behaviors remain the same. Remember, the labels are only descriptors used for convenience to describe existing patterns of behavior.
Even an Omega King is going to behave in socially off-putting manners. Even the most junior Alpha is going to retain his self-confidence. A Gamma is not going to stop being bitter and seeking to ferret out the ulterior motives of those around him just because he happens to be the most popular and attractive man in the social circle. Indeed, some of the great tragedies of history can be traced back to Gammas somehow managing to put themselves in positions of great power.
An Alpha isn't going to lose his shit when he is disrespected by someone he regards as an equal or a superior, on or off the Internet. A Gamma is always going to lose it, although in person he might - might - have just enough sense to conceal it. But you can bet that he will spend the next month plotting dozens of revenge scenarios and concocting even more witty parting shots that would have totally destroyed the offending party.
Consider the very different reactions of dc.sunsets and Casher O'Neill to being publicly called out. Dc shrugged and took it. Casher sperged out in a classic butthurt fashion. Did you really find it terribly hard to distinguish their reactions, or discern their probable ranks in the hierarchy?
The importance of the SSH is in its ability to serve as a predictive model. For example, I now seek to avoid working with gammas, because they simply cannot take criticism without going into lengthy funks and they find it very hard to respect organizational structure. They often try to undermine their superiors and leap the chain of command, and when they quit, they often like to do so at a time when it will cause maximum distruption. By the same token, I don't want too many Alphas, because they end up wasting time on intra-organizational pissing matches instead of actually doing anything productive.
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