> Her life seems intense to me, and I don’t understand how she’s here at this party looking lively. I personally can work on my research a few hours a day before I need to go nap or watch some youtube videos. Is she fundamentally different from me in some profound way? Does she just have more energy resources? Or does she (and everyone else here) habitually exaggerate their productivity?
The thing to understand about these people is that they're institutions. The people under them do the work, and they make a full-time job of making themselves look good. Which doesn't mean they don't work at it, but it's a different kind of work and it's less taxing. With deep work, you start to decline after 4-5 hours per day. Schmoozers can play their game all day; it's just not as mentally difficult.
And yes, they are very good at making themselves appear to be people whose shit doesn't stink. Spoiler alert: it actually smells like everyone else's.
Bingo, I could not have said it better myself, and right after I just left a meandering, confused comment in different thread trying to say the same kind of thing. This is exactly it. When you have convinced (or hired) other people to do the work you're supposed to be doing, you suddenly have 24 hours a day free to work on self-promotion, and "building your own brand," schmoozing, bullshitting, having that look, having that style, all those things that signal class and actually impress the big-shots who, in turn help to make you a big-shot. FTA:
> I don’t understand how they do it, and I can’t tell if I or they are the weird ones. People here are directors of strategy or vice presidents or head tech coordinators or editors at magazines. I don’t think I could do any of that even if I had all of it handed to me.
I think she's wrong: She could do this. Anybody could do it if it were handed to them. Imagine what you'd do if your livelihood was taken care of for you--you don't have to worry about money. You'd just kind of do what you want to do and hire other people to do the hard stuff. That's all these people are doing.
You can be handed a functional institution, but unless you know how to keep it together, you'll just run it into the ground eventually.
If you accept that the institution-people aren't actually working but building brands and selling their brands, then it follows that it is a different set of skills to do the work than it is to represent it.
The thing to understand about these people is that they're institutions. The people under them do the work, and they make a full-time job of making themselves look good. Which doesn't mean they don't work at it, but it's a different kind of work and it's less taxing. With deep work, you start to decline after 4-5 hours per day. Schmoozers can play their game all day; it's just not as mentally difficult.
And yes, they are very good at making themselves appear to be people whose shit doesn't stink. Spoiler alert: it actually smells like everyone else's.