This is a summary of an excellent but long blog post, Status as a Service (StaaS) — Remains of the Day (eugenewei.com). I wanted everyone to have access to the perspectives and ideas laid out in the post, but the barrier to entry is currently a 20,000 word essay. The main thing knowingly missing from these summaries is that the original is humorously well-written, which will not come through. Also included is a very brief look at LessWrong in light of the ideas, which I could not prevent myself from writing. 100x compression List of takeaways: * Human beings chase status (social capital) and are good at recognizing efficient ways to gain it. * Social networks provide social capital opportunities, utility, and entertainment. Analyzing just utility/entertainment/network effects isn't enough. * Social network success is highly analogous to cryptocurrency. New capital (new status hierarchy), proof-of-work (sharable Tweet), built-in and increasing scarcity (harder to get the most followers once Twitter is saturated). * Young folks are the biggest target: they have more time and less existing efficient ability to gain social capital. * Proof-of-work is an asymptote of growth; only so many people will compose a video for TikTok. Social capital devaluation can also kill a network; classic example is parents-joining chased kids off Facebook. * Merely exposing status might be enough to provide social capital opportunities, a persistent profile + artifacts is not necessarily required. * Social capital can be exchanged for goods and services. Sometimes. * Unless you are status-poor, you probably don't understand the actions of those trying to gain social capital cheaply. 10x compression Efficient Status Opportunities Humans are status-seeking monkeys and continually seek out efficient paths to maximizing their social capital, but social networks are rarely analyzed on the dimensions of status or social capital. Let's analyze social networks in general, and many