Beyond Titles: Unraveling the Complex Web of Status and Leadership

Reflections on when I started to despise status.

It was in the early days of the Internet, and I was chatting with a professor I met through a game we both played. (Do you remember ICQ? I miss that animated flower.) In a conversation about goals, dreams, and wishes, he espoused a need for status. I don’t even remember what status he was trying to achieve—tenured professor, perhaps? All I saw was red. …