We live in a hierarchical pyramid where there are alphas managing sub alphas and this happens at multiple resolutions within our society.

The ceos are groveling to investors, aka billionaires. I guess those guys are the true alphas.

You just redefined alpha as a person with money.

I would argue that the wealthy which hold loans based on stock collateral are holding debt and not credit. US banking laws are just hiding the fact. So a number of rich people you define as alpha are not really alpha because of debt vs credit imbalance.

This means the person spending money while going through Disney World are alpha.

Bro I define an alpha as someone who leads and controls others. Someone people follow whether by will or by force or because they are paid a salary.

You’re just being pedantic. I don’t need to explain to you why people intrinsically know Elon musk is an alpha and the person going to Disney world is a beta.

This is a very not HN comment

Sure HNers hate Elon for various reasons. But overall some random dude who goes to disney world versus A billionaire who caught a rocket and makes stupid tweets online.... Let's be real here about what "society" defines as alpha, not some HNers backwater opinion.

ANd even that HNer knows his contrary opinion is backwater. Trump and Elon get a lot of hate, but they are leaders on the apex of the human status hierarchy.

> Trump and Elon get a lot of hate, but they are leaders on the apex of the human status hierarchy.

Trump can’t spell “Colombia” and Elon is, at best, an idiot savant.

When I think of “leaders of the human status hierarchy”, I do not think of a man who spends his entire day online trolling people, regardless of whether he is worth billions or not. Similarly, I don’t picture a guy that wears lifts because he is ashamed of his height, or who paints his face orange, to be that “apex” either.

Richest person in the world and president of the USA are not people at the top of the hierarchy? Who is then?

Is it you? Because you don’t spend all day trolling people or you don’t paint your face orange? Let’s get back in touch with reality please.

It is hilarious to see people use bro pseudo-science to reconstruct dialectical materialism.

I’m really confused as to how trips to Disney are entering the conversation here. What does that have to do with any of this discussion?

look, HN, stop feeding the troll. he's tweaking you - just shun him

To me the Alpha Mentality is just stupidity in another Yes-Man form.

Seems you hold the alpha mentality deeply and respect those you seem as alpha. By your own logic, cult leaders are alpha and should be respected.

Respect can only be earned, continuously reinforced, and lost in a single moment. Respect cannot be demanded or forcefully requested.

Watch the first episode of "Band of Brothers". Who would you want as a leader, the alpha, one with power, Captain Herbert Sobel or 2nd Lutenaint Richard Winters, the one without power?

For some public companies retail share holders also have to be groveled to.

I don't have an overall point here other than that power isn't as simple as some people want it to be. You command a ship until there's a mutiny. There are hierarchies, but that's only one way of slicing things. It's more about a set of several feedback loops that nobody explicitly understands.

Of course it’s not simple. But alphas and betas are intrinsic to society and that’s my point.

You will see that society converges towards alphas. There have been attempts to make everything egalitarian but it doesn’t last and alphas pop up everywhere. Heck you can’t even make a purely voting society where society votes on everything. Instead everyone votes for an alpha. Aka trump.

Citations, please. This may be a US-centric site, but that does not mean all societies on this planet behave like Americans.

Capital by Thomas Picketty. He’s French.

I don’t like your tone. When you say not everyone behaves like Americans you sound like you’re implying superiority as if Americans don’t behave well and I have to conform to your version of good behavior. Change your tone or I won’t continue with you.