Again, what’s critical is that these are the evaluations of our betters. A scientist, with a large laboratory to run, learns that some of the junior staff think he’s an arrogant jerk, and he rolls his eyes, wondering why they don’t grasp that he simply has high standards; he learns that a Nobel laureate in his field considers him a lightweight, and he doesn’t sleep for a week. Within networks of hierarchy, people distinguish sharply between bearing the resentment of someone of lower status and bearing the contempt of someone of higher status. One annoys; the other wounds.
