The Silent Dominance Battles of Twenty Somethings

Pride leads to arrogance and then away from humility and connection with their fellow man. You don’t have to be Christian to see the wisdom in this. You need only to care about your career to understand that pride—even in real accomplishments—is a distraction and a deluder. (Location 1017)

When catching up with people you haven't seen in a while, the desire is high to immediately jump into conveying the most braggadocios news about yourself since you have last seen the person.^[1]

Amongst type-A American millennials, the re-sync is the prime opportunity to enter a non verbal tourney with your peer, to puff your chest out and compare size through success or failure.

Are you still living at home with your parents?

Did you get that promotion?

How's your girlfriend doing?

I'm sorry to hear about…

When did you move to …? What's your rent?

A human version of the chimpanzee dominance display.

In fact, when I've tried to avoid discussing myself for experiment or out of a desire to avoid the spotlight, it seems to come off as rude. ↩︎