The Diderot Effect: Shopping One's Way to Financial Misery

Re:The Diderot Effect: Shopping One's Way to Financial Misery by cultofquack on Monday June 20, 2016 @05:43AM (#11937041)

For context, the exerpt is from the book The Screwtape Letters. A demon named Screwtape mentors an inexperienced demon in how to torment humans (and drag them down to Hell): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters

The book is in the public domain.

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Re:The Diderot Effect: Shopping One's Way to Financial Misery by jimmywanger on Monday June 20, 2016 @10:21AM (#11938191)

Thanks for mentioning it! I couldn't figure out how to shoehorn the book description into my comment.

Another point which I think is interesting from the original article is social status signaling. Every city does it slightly differently.

For instance, in the Bay Area, you signal social status by talking about the hot startups you founded, the companies you worked for, and the open source projects you contribute to.

In LA, you signal by the kind of car you drive, the famous people you know, and the kind of clothes you wear (I know, I'm generalizing).

People who move from one area to the other have a harder time making friends, getting jobs, and getting dates cause the signals they send off are all wrong from what others are expecting.

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Re:The Diderot Effect: Shopping One's Way to Financial Misery by neomormon on Monday June 20, 2016 @06:00AM (#11937092)

Interesting aside: The book is dedicated to his best friend J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien convinced Lewis to become a Christian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

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Re:The Diderot Effect: Shopping One's Way to Financial Misery by teddyh on Monday June 20, 2016 @06:30AM (#11937150)

A Catholic, even.

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Re:The Diderot Effect: Shopping One's Way to Financial Misery by steverb on Monday June 20, 2016 @01:19PM (#11939460)

Tolkien was Catholic, Lewis was Church of England. Although I'm not sure what bearing that factoid has on the discussion.

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