Play a Hierarchy of Games
Diversify your sources of status like a hedged portfolio to stay sane
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 80%
Storr argues you cannot exit the status game, but you can choose which games to play. A cult, in his definition, is a status game that is completely exclusive — you get connection and status from nowhere else. When one group is your sole source of status, you become liable to irrational belief and damaging behaviour, and if you are expelled your whole sense of self collapses. But the answer is not to play many games equally, because earning real status takes effort and time. Instead, play a hierarchy: one main game that gets most of your time, plus a few smaller games as hedges — like a diversified property portfolio of selves, so a setback in one arena never wipes out your entire identity.
Origin
From the closing advice of Will Storr's The Status Game, drawing on research into cults, fundamentalist groups, and psychological resilience.
Core principles
- 01You are the games you play; identity is bound to your status sources
- 02A single source of status is the definition of a cult
- 03One-game players risk irrational belief and total collapse if ousted
- 04Earning real status takes time, so games can't all be equal
- 05Keep one main game plus a few smaller hedges
How to run it
- 1
Audit your status sources
List where you currently draw connection and esteem — job, family, friends, hobbies, causes. Notice how concentrated they are.
Watch out If almost all your status comes from one group, you are exposed to cult-like risk.
- 2
Name the cult risk
A single, exclusive source of status is the structural definition of a cult and breeds irrational belief and behaviour.
- 3
Choose one main game
Because real status takes time and effort, commit most of your time to a single primary game where you can genuinely earn standing.
Pro tip Don't spread yourself so thin that you never earn real status in any game.
- 4
Add hedging games
Build a few secondary games beneath the main one so you have other versions of self earning status in different ways.
Pro tip Think of it as a hedged portfolio — losses in one holding are cushioned by the others.
- 5
Keep it a hierarchy, not a tie
Rank the games rather than treating them equally, so effort concentrates where it can compound into real status.
In the wild
Storr describes people whose entire identity is bound to one group — a job, a fundamentalist political or religious cause — as being in a cult by structure. If that single game fails or expels them, their whole sense of self fails with it, because 'you are the games you play.' The prescribed hedge is to keep the main game but add a few smaller ones, so a redundancy or a falling-out never erases the person's entire source of worth.
→ Diversified status sources make a person more resilient to setbacks and less prone to irrational, group-captured thinking.
Common mistakes
Sourcing all status from one game
Total dependence on one group is cult-like: it invites irrational belief and risks a full identity collapse if the group fails.
Playing every game equally
Splitting effort evenly means never earning real status anywhere, since status demands concentrated time and application.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone whose self-worth is dangerously concentrated in one job, community, cause, or relationship.
Not ideal for
People who need deep single-domain mastery and would be harmed by spreading effort too thin across equal games.
From the transcript
“you want to play just one game because people who play one games are in a cult and that's the definition of a cult”
“the idea is to play a hierarchy of games really is to have one main game... but then have a few other ones”
From the episode
How To Play The Status Game - Will Storr - #374
Will Storr