"This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we'r...
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Sep 25, 2010
Ruzz
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this book claims to be absent any original ideas. It cites long (and I mean long) standing philosophical precepts, draws on well worn wisdom and largely repeats what has already been said.
what's remarkable then is that it does so in such a clear and erudite manner that nearly every part of it--and it follows the whole would--makes sense. fundamentally.
it offers no cure for status anxiety (as there isn't one) but it does give great insight into its roots, and some of the w More...
what's remarkable then is that it does so in such a clear and erudite manner that nearly every part of it--and it follows the whole would--makes sense. fundamentally.
it offers no cure for status anxiety (as there isn't one) but it does give great insight into its roots, and some of the w More...
Sep 25, 2010
Corey
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I loved this book. However, if you're going to read it, be ready to analyze your life, question your ambition and search for ways in which you can better treat your fellow humans.
I love comparitive philosophy. I especially love it when it's well-researched and well-written. Alain's style is conversational and informative but he doesn't come of sounding academic and esoteric. You learn from his research that our modern day obsession with 'stuff' isn't a modern convention.
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I love comparitive philosophy. I especially love it when it's well-researched and well-written. Alain's style is conversational and informative but he doesn't come of sounding academic and esoteric. You learn from his research that our modern day obsession with 'stuff' isn't a modern convention.
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Sep 25, 2010
Ryan
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Really interesting. I don't tend to read this kind of thing, but I saw his TED talk about status, and despite status being something I don't think about a lot, his delivery was interesting and he had some solid ideas.
The book's a short philosophical exercise that goes through causes, and then solutions, of anxiety we feel about status. Both run the gamut from religion, politics, lovelessness, history, and other ways of looking at how we've looked at life over the last couple mill More...
The book's a short philosophical exercise that goes through causes, and then solutions, of anxiety we feel about status. Both run the gamut from religion, politics, lovelessness, history, and other ways of looking at how we've looked at life over the last couple mill More...
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Sep 25, 2010
Rebecca
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Status Anxiety offers a generalized history of Western conceptions of status and the ways that art, philosophy and religion have mediated, supported and challenged these definitions. After several examples chosen from the broadest of time frames, de Botton only briefly mentions how this history can be related to our current time period and doesn't offer any ingenious perspective on how current institutions, behaviors or practices could mediate, support or challenge our current definition of hig
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Sep 25, 2010
Entertaining, but not his best: I'm usually quite a fan of Alain de Botton's writing but I found this book a little disappointing. De Botton has a consistent style and approach: a light-touched, urbane tour of the great minds, usually in search of resolutions to widespread issues or questions, in this case the causes and potential solutions to status anxiety. It is a pick and mix of philosophy, art and economics: not in such large chunks as to be indigestible and sweetened with wit and amusing e
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Sep 25, 2010
Serena
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I had a really great review for this book and then my computer crashed...apologies since this version won't be as good or comprehensive. Overall I'd say that the book was more didactic than I was expecting, but that won't stop me from reading more of his works.
Maybe it's schadenfreude, but there's nothing wrong with validation on our natural human feelings of insecurity, especially given today's economic state. de Botton never gets too preachy as his premise is grounded in several More...
Maybe it's schadenfreude, but there's nothing wrong with validation on our natural human feelings of insecurity, especially given today's economic state. de Botton never gets too preachy as his premise is grounded in several More...
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Sep 25, 2010
Mike
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De Botton wanders nimbly through the philosophical, religious, political and sociological history of western so-called civilization. In so doing, he comes to the unmistakable conclusion that aside from a few scattered bohemians, we are all pretty much a bunch of snobs. De Botton himself, in spite of his great learning, seems to be siding with the bohemians. There's more than one way to live, he tells us. To be anxious of our status, when living in a land of snobs, is a self-defeating crock o
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Dec 03, 2011
Isabel
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Given the vast inequalities we are daily confronted with, perhaps the most notable feature of envy is that we manage not too envy everyone. There are people whose enormous blessings leave us wholly untroubled, others whose minor advantages act as sources of relentless torment. We envy only those whom we feel ourselves to be like; we envy only members of our reference group. There are few successes more unendurable than those of our close friends.[return][return]At different times and places, an
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Jan 09, 2012
Andrew
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A really excellent book in which de Botton examines how we are driven by our desire to have other people think highly of us and, ultimately, our desire to be loved. In the second half of the book he examines five areas that provide 'solutions': philosophy, art, politics, Christianity, Bohemia. I was able to latch on to all of these antidotes to a degree but was very fascinated by his inclusion of Christianity - my fascination made keen mainly because of my own belief in Christianity. One area he
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Sep 02, 2011
T.
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In his 300 page thesis, Alain De Botton provides us with a thorough examintion of status, and the anxiety which stems from not having it. The blurb initially makes a comparison between romantic desire and the desire for status or 'world love', but rather than looking into status desire as an individual trait, the majority of the book explores cultural perspectives on what is considered high-status.
The strongest chapters discuss how we perceive status as a comparative idea, and how wh More...
The strongest chapters discuss how we perceive status as a comparative idea, and how wh More...
Jun 21, 2011
Megan
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This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. de Botton uses his usual clear and accessible style of philosophizing to dissect just why it is we never seem to be happy where we are, and just what it is that makes us always want more. This is one of those books that should be read once every year. de Botton is probably my favorite living author, and this book hit me at just the right moment in my life, but I suspect it will be relative and useful to me my whole life long.
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Apr 30, 2011
Jonathan
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I like that the majority of this book is focused on solutions which individuals and groups have employed to counter status anxiety.
Meritocracy, Politics, Religion, and Bohemia are my favorite chapters.
Reading this book was a blend of a history lesson, an interesting angle on economics and social psychology, philosophy, and therapy: looking at the cause of the causes to an all too commonly felt anxiety.
Status
"Different societies have awarded status to different More...
Meritocracy, Politics, Religion, and Bohemia are my favorite chapters.
Reading this book was a blend of a history lesson, an interesting angle on economics and social psychology, philosophy, and therapy: looking at the cause of the causes to an all too commonly felt anxiety.
Status
"Different societies have awarded status to different More...
Sep 25, 2010
Laura
rated it:
What I love about de Botton is his ability to draw upon art, economics, politics, and philosophy to make his point. This book will not offer you a solution to status anxiety, but it will offer you perspective. You'll want to read it more than once.
Here's a quote from p.9... "There is something at once sobering and absurd in the extent to which we are lifted by the attentions of others and sunk by their disregard."
Here's a quote from p.9... "There is something at once sobering and absurd in the extent to which we are lifted by the attentions of others and sunk by their disregard."
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Sep 25, 2010
Nathan
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After beginning with a solid, fairly engaging introduction to the concept of status from a cultural anthropology perspective, de Botton lurches awkwardly into a discussion of religion, science and art. The problem is, he fails to make the connection between these and his original thesis abundantly clear. I wasn't sure what he intended to convey by the end of this book. Wasted time, but at least not too much.
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Aug 17, 2011
Liam
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"Our 'ego' or self-conception could be pictured as a leaking balloon, forwver requiring the helium of external love to reamin inflated and vulnerable to the smallest pinpricks of neglect." (16)
"'To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them gratified. There is a strange lightness in the heart when one's nothingness in a particular area is accepted in good faith. How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young or slender. "Thank God!" More...
"'To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them gratified. There is a strange lightness in the heart when one's nothingness in a particular area is accepted in good faith. How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young or slender. "Thank God!" More...
Jul 08, 2011
JamesMarinero
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I read this book when I was sailing to Brazil - achieving a lifelong ambition and leaving the rat race for a year or thereabouts. So, I was ready for this, with an open mind (eventually 78 nights at sea, many of them on my back looking at the stars). So, what about the book?
Completely different to 'On Love' and 'The Consolations of Philosophy' (thanks Peter at congnatum.com for putting me on to Alain de Botton), the basic idea that our current system of measuring people on a scale of More...
Completely different to 'On Love' and 'The Consolations of Philosophy' (thanks Peter at congnatum.com for putting me on to Alain de Botton), the basic idea that our current system of measuring people on a scale of More...
Sep 25, 2010
Morgan
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This is a wonderful book, so clear and decisive, and it couldn't have came out at a more appropriate time. This is the type of book that sparks revolutions. ... Well, maybe not actual physical revolutions, but certainly revolutions in thought.
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Sep 10, 2011
Frederik
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Een heerlijk, helder betoog over iets waar we allemaal (in meer of mindere mate) last van hebben: het streven naar (meer) status. De Botton weeft zoals gebruikelijk elementen en anekdotes uit de literatuur en de schilderkunst door zijn teksten. Meermaals krijg je de indruk dat 'de meester' even het strakke lesschema laat voor wat het is om 'een verhaaltje' te vertellen. Toch momenten waar we allemaal van genoten op de schoolbanken?
Het eerste deel is sociologisch/psychologisch het in More...
Het eerste deel is sociologisch/psychologisch het in More...
Aug 13, 2011
Sam
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I enjoy De Botton's intellectual, almost philosophical, writing. In this book, he discusses where and how current day take on status and the general anxiety so many have over their status. He explains some history of how we got here, and how status has changed over the centuries. He also discusses ways in which the common ideal of status has been challenged over time. This isn't a self-help book on how to deal with your own status anxiety, but instead a description of where it comes from so
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Jan 16, 2012
Karen
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Power struggle and inequalities are the basic stuff of life in this imperfect world. This book doesn't say all there is to be said about the topic, but it does offer some very enlightening thoughts and insights into our never-ending struggle to keep up with and "beat" our fellow creatures at anything under the sun.
You can get a good introduction to this book through author Alain de Botton's TED talk, entitled "A kinder, gentler philosophy of success":
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/alain_d... More...
You can get a good introduction to this book through author Alain de Botton's TED talk, entitled "A kinder, gentler philosophy of success":
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/alain_d... More...
Aug 03, 2011
J'avais voulu acheter un livre qui ne me fasse pas culpabiliser de ne pas lire de la sociologie. Celui-là était véritablement une mauvaise pioche malgré un titre plutôt alléchant (Mon cher et tendre m'avait même dit, l'air mi-inquiet, mi-amusé:"Encore?"). Réflexion molle de l'auteur (Suisse immigré à Londres) sur la reconnaissance sociale, classée par thématique (Le mériteee...). Essai de culture gé sans l'être, finalement ni littérature, ni sociologie. D'où frustration extrême. Yuk!
J' More...
J' More...
Nov 10, 2011
Alistair
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I enjoyed this book. I found the history parts illuminating. I was hoping it would contain something that would blow me away—a fresh perspective, a new way of thinking. I am currently unemployed, poor, and have little social life and consequentially I’m going through some ‘status anxiety’ issues. The book helped me by rationalizing these feelings and explaining the social factors which cause them to be so prevalent in modern society. This was comforting. Rather than the golden solution to my pro
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May 08, 2011
Brian
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Either this book is awfully like a long blog post about nothing or reading it on your Kindle makes it seem that way. I loved the humanist approach to addressing everyday insecurities - especially in the mini-reviews of The Death of Ivan Illyich and Oedipus, but this is a little too sincere for anyone who reads things written by past or present employees of Nick Denton. Adopting any of this book's Pollyannaish theories of human interactions seems to me to be a great way to fiddle while you burn
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Jan 06, 2012
matt
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Underwhelmed. Botton is erudite, eloquent, wide-ranging, interested and interesting. He claims that we are consumed by status, and status anxiety, because we lack something more profound than the material satisfactions can hope to be. Veritas. He offers quite a few alternatives to the snobbery and mendacity which is obvious to many, if not most, in conspicuous consumption.
But that's sort of the problem- it's all possibility, perspective. Botton diagnoses the problem, sur More...
Sep 25, 2010
Tim
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What a perfectly delightful book - well-written, thoughtful, careful and creative in its interaction with history, and replete with well-chosen quotations. Not a full length essay, but pieces of ideas that fit into a kind of argument quite nicely. The first five chapters include the causes of status anxiety (lovelessness, expectation, meritocracy, snobbery, and dependence) and the second half examines potential solutions (philosophy, art, politics, religion, bohemia). He early on defines stat
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Sep 25, 2010
Sandra
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I thought this was a fun book to read. I am not sure de Botton connected his original thesis about culture, snobbishness, and status, but he did take me on a delightful historical, anthropological romp thru the ages, with examples culled from the arts, religion and science. He demonstrates how our feelings for the poor and impoverished continue to change, and revert, over time as well as in different cultures. Lots of examples. Early in the book he describes Nixon visiting Russia in the 60's.
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Jun 17, 2011
Emily
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A great introduction for those who are interested in, yet not very acquainted with, philosophy of ego and status.
De Botton discussus status, how societies come to assign what constitutes high or low status, its effect on an individual's mental state. To illustrate his points, he takes you on a quick historical tour of the different major philosophies and movements that have built on, redefined or outright challenged prevailing definitions of status in different societies.
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De Botton discussus status, how societies come to assign what constitutes high or low status, its effect on an individual's mental state. To illustrate his points, he takes you on a quick historical tour of the different major philosophies and movements that have built on, redefined or outright challenged prevailing definitions of status in different societies.
More...
Sep 24, 2011
ann
rated it:
The book could be called high brow-self help in the sense that de Botton examines the nature of status anxiety...for instance how proximity to others and social context determine it's severity.
De Botton doesn't claim that status anxiety is a new phenomenon, but explores the modern manifestation with back drop of other periods. WPeople have always competed and killed each other for social acknowledgement. What society has deemed a worthy cause to kill or compete for over has just change More...
De Botton doesn't claim that status anxiety is a new phenomenon, but explores the modern manifestation with back drop of other periods. WPeople have always competed and killed each other for social acknowledgement. What society has deemed a worthy cause to kill or compete for over has just change More...
Sep 25, 2010
Annie
rated it:
One of my favorites of the de Botton books. Definitely the thing to read for any sort of life transition! The book is broken into both "Causes" (work, friendships, politics,) and "Solutions" (art, religion, etc.)
In the classic de Botton format, philosophy is woven with acute wit that is modern and entirely appropriate for today's world. He is always so readable, and this book is something I will certainly come back to over the years.
I particularly lov More...
In the classic de Botton format, philosophy is woven with acute wit that is modern and entirely appropriate for today's world. He is always so readable, and this book is something I will certainly come back to over the years.
I particularly lov More...
Sep 25, 2010
Kate
rated it:
This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. This is a book about status anxiety.
We care about our status for a simple reason: because most people tend to be nice to us according to the amount of status we have (it is no coincidence that the first question we tend to be asked by new acquaintances is ‘ What do you do?’). With the he More...
We care about our status for a simple reason: because most people tend to be nice to us according to the amount of status we have (it is no coincidence that the first question we tend to be asked by new acquaintances is ‘ What do you do?’). With the he More...
