pjeby comments on Thoughts on status signals - Less Wrong
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I think the point was that trying too hard is a sign of low status, where "too hard" is relative to the benefit that could be obtained by a favorable impression, or relative to the impress-ee's perception of their own status.
Hm. In the pickup-artist literature, the concept of trying too hard or "supplicating" is described as "offering value" (e.g. offering to buy a drink, inviting someone out, etc.) before the other person has established they have comparable value (e.g. before they've shown they're an interesting conversationalist, a cool person, or something else that would make them worthy of the offered value.)
In other words, they stress that relationships are built on roughly-equal trades of tangible or intangible value, and that offering too much value relative to the exchange so far creates suspicion -- i.e., "trying too hard".
Is this the type of "trying too hard" you're talking about, or something else?