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philh comments on Status - is it what we think it is? - Less Wrong Discussion

20 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 30 March 2015 09:37PM

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Comment author: philh 02 April 2015 05:05:40PM *  0 points [-]

I don't like to be in charge. Some relevant times when I particularly didn't like it:

  • When I was president of my university airsoft society, one of my exec team wasn't doing his job. That sucked for everyone in the society, and it was stressful for me, and I had to tell him off and he apologized; I don't remember if he started doing his job after that.

  • When I organized the HPMOR wrap party, for at least a week beforehand I was under pretty much constant low-level stress. I felt like I wasn't doing enough, but I wasn't sure what else I could be doing, and/or anything I could think of felt really ugh-y. At the end, a group of us went for a meal, and someone else was pretty clearly in charge for that part, which was great.

There's probably more I could say about this. Feel free to ask questions.

edit - I should note that although I didn't enjoy being in charge of the wrap party before it happened, it was rewarding afterwards, when it had turned out to be a really good evening. I definitely got something out of being in charge in that case, that I wouldn't have got from just participating. So it's probably oversimplistic of me to say that I don't like being in charge, but there is much that I dislike about it.

Comment author: Stefan_Schubert 02 April 2015 08:50:44PM 1 point [-]

Interesting. I'm starting to believe some people might think that they want to be in charge but actually really don't. They have, so to speak, internalized society's expectations that people should want to be in charge. Because it is true that being in charge has serious drawbacks.