Comment by dougmwne | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dougmwne | Hacker News Reader

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I've been thinking about this a lot recently too. So much of what we do in life is driven by its social signaling value. Our lists of likes, dislikes, purchases, hobbies, decisions, and more are all heavily influenced by the perceptions and judgements of the people around us.

Take the decision to buy that shiny SUV. People know that the age and quality of the car you drive is linked to your personality and financial success. If you buy yourself a Model X, 95% of people around you will perceive you differently: environmentally concerned, passionate early adopter, bad at ROI calculations. Driving a beater even though you could obviously afford more is another way of signaling your prudence and risk tolerance.

And why not? We are first and foremost social, tribal creatures. So I would say you're not an odd duck, there's just a different set of values you're trying to signal.

> So I would say you're not an odd duck, there's just a different set of values you're trying to signal.

I agreed with most of your comment, but this sentence seems to imply that all decisions are purely or at least primarily for the purpose of signaling values to others. I don't think this is true. Humans may be very social and tribal creatures, but I don't think that means it's impossible to make decisions without caring what other people think, like who reads the "signals" generated from e.g. the prudent purchase of a used Honda or whatever.

>like who reads the "signals" generated from e.g. the prudent purchase of a used Honda or whatever

These social signals form an entire nonverbal language and we are always speaking. Your used Honda is saying more than you realize. Making decisions without caring what other people think speaks volumes as well.

Just because everything you do generates a social signal, doesn't mean everything you do is strongly influenced by the desire to generate that social signal.

As a analogy, everything I do might generate some amount of sound. When I'm singing karaoke, the primary goal is to generate that sound. When I move my bookshelf by dragging it across the floor, the sound is incidental.

Likewise, I think it's perfectly possible for someone to actually to want to buy the Model X outside of signals it generates for the world, even though it generates a signal.

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