Harold Winslow

Prestige is Slack

Here are some categories of things with their elements listed roughly in order of level of prestige:

What do the high prestige items have in common? They are not common because they are too expensive (in terms of time, money, energy, etc) for the average person to afford. Note that this does not imply that the higher prestige item is actually better, though in some cases it is. Golf and sailing will never condition you the way a mainstream sport will. A guitar is more portable than a cello and allows you to engage with the bulk of published music more readily. And sedans really are better along most practical dimensions than sports cars. On the other hand, reading really will enrich your life in a way that video games won't, and tailored clothes do look better and feel more comfortable than those that aren't tailored. The point is that prestige is a totally unreliable guide to what item you should choose within a given category of your life. Instead, you have to actually think about the concrete costs and benefits. Oh, the pain!