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Individually alpha is collectively beta. That’s actually the centrist argument against the sort of exaggerated ultra-masculinity that’s in vogue today. I understand how that ideology arose, but it actually makes you weak, because it inhibits scaled cooperation. Essentially: in almost every context in life you can’t and shouldn’t be the leader. Even Elon isn’t running the water supply or sewing his own clothes. In those contexts, he’s just an individual like any other, operating in a context where he isn’t the boss. Even the greatest CEO of all time can’t be CEO of everything, all the time. Steve Jobs understood this too. Also a superalpha at Apple, he nevertheless understood in an email towards the end of his life (attached below) how dependent he was on the rest of humanity in most other contexts. What few understand is that being a leader is actually a huge responsibility. You simply can’t be at the top of every hierarchy in the world nor should you seek to be. A good life is more about win/win cooperation than the quixotic pursuit of zero-sum dominance. The fact that Western societies have lost faith in both God and the State is part of what’s driven them towards the most primitive sort of chest-thumping Internet he-manism, but being “alpha” all the time doesn’t scale. Cooperation does. These kids may be individually “beta”, but when they grow up and work together they’re collectively alpha. https://t.co/NUzbHnBpH5