Status

Will Wilkinson mentions Alain de Botton's program on Status Anxiety:

We might not worry so much if status were not so hard to achieve and even harder to maintain over a lifetime. Except in societies where it is fixed at birth and our veins flow with noble blood, our position hangs on what we can make of ourselves; and we may fail in the enterprise due to stupidity or an absence of self-knowledge, macro-economics or malevolence.

And from failure will flow humiliation: a corroding awareness that we have been unable to convince the world of our value and are henceforth condemned to consider the successful with bitterness and ourselves with shame.

He may be right as far as most people are concerned. I'm happy to say I believe I'm free of the bitterness and shame. Either because I don't care about status, or I think I've got it.

Wilkinson points out,

I think a sensitivity to others’ opinion can help us guard against self-delusion. The trick is to pick the right people whose opinion you care about. The paradox is that the better you are at picking the right people, the less you probably need them to keep you grounded.