Status Anxiety

Alain de Botton, 2004

Why do other people's opinions of us hurt so much? Discover where our hunger for status comes from, and how philosophy, art, politics and Christianity can loosen its grip.

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12 parts, about 22 minutes to read.

Why read it

Traces the worry about our standing to five causes, from the hunger for love to meritocracy's claim that failure is deserved
Helps you see that what counts as success is a changeable ideal, and that you can choose whose judgment to seek
Draws remedies from philosophy, novels, tragedy, comedy, politics, Christianity and bohemia, each proposing a different measure of success

Who it is for

Professionals who measure their worth by salary and title
Readers who feel behind when comparing themselves with old friends
People questioning a career they chose for prestige

What the summary covers

What status anxiety is1 min
Cause one: lovelessness1 min
Cause two: snobbery2 min
Cause three: expectation2 min
Cause four: meritocracy2 min
Cause five: dependence2 min
Solution one: philosophy2 min
Solution two: art2 min
Solution three: politics3 min
Solution four: Christianity2 min
Solution five: bohemia2 min
Choosing our audience1 min

About the author

Alain de BottonBritish author and cofounder of The School of Life
- Born 20 December 1969 in Zürich, a British author and public speaker
- Read history at Cambridge, then MPhil in philosophy at King's College London, then began a PhD in French philosophy at Harvard
- Essays in Love (1993) sold two million copies
- Cofounded The School of Life in 2008 and Living Architecture in 2009
- Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011

Read it alongside

Pushes backThe Courage to Be Disliked
Alain de Botton suggests choosing which audience and hierarchy to be judged by, since fear of failure comes with ambition; Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga argue that we should not seek recognition, should see relationships as horizontal rather than vertical, and should step out of competition