Status Games

The Weekend Windup #17 - Reflections, Cool Reads, Events, and More

You can rent out this fake “private jet” for photos, so you can pretend you’re super rich and cool, when you’re really just a dweeb.

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about status games.

I recently revisited Will Storr’s book, The Status Game. The core thesis is that society is essentially one giant game where we’re all jockeying for position. We’re all gunning for something, trying to find our place in the pecking order.

Status games take a number of forms. If you’re a leader, you increasingly want other leaders in your field to take notice of you. And you’re trying to get the attention of the CEO, who is in term trying to impress the board. It’s status games all the way up, and down.

I posted a question on LinkedIn yesterday: How do you measure success as a data or AI leader?

We all know the vanity metrics are BS. Successful leaders don’t measure impact by:

• The size of their team (inflated)

• The fluffiness of their title (usually made up).

• The number of awards on their shelf (usually paid for).

The comments were pretty cheeky, with some friends mentioning “lines of code” or “number of dashboards”. But others like Juan Sequeda hit the nail on the head: Increase revenue, reduce cost, mitigate risk. Yep, that’s it. That’s the answer. It’s not sexy or flashy, and won’t win awards. Yet it’s painfully obvious, and goes back to the existential loop the data industry’s been stuck in for decades, constantly asking, “how do we add value?” Especially with AI, companies are diving head-first into the deep end without knowing how to swim.

Another status game is social media. For some reason, people obsess over follower count. Half of my Substack feed are Notes about “so excited to see my subscribers grow to N” (N=10 to infinity). If that’s what you’re chasing, cool.

The other day, I was a guest at Zach Wilson’s bootcamp, helping to kick off his latest cohort. In the convo, Zach and I chatted about how we’ve got completely different styles when it comes to content and presence. Zach is bombastic, and he’s got no problem talking about his subscriber counts, his followers, or his revenue.

Me? Maybe I’m just older. I don’t really care about promoting that stuff. Follower count is a nice vanity metric, but it doesn’t drive what I write about, or how I behave. My brand has always been more of the “unhinged, no-bullshit, straight talk” variety. But here’s the thing. Zach, me, and others all co-exist in the social media ecosystem. Everyone has their place. The people who are “successful” on social media (whatever that means) usually follow their own game. If you’re trying to copy the person next to you, it’s harder to stand out, and you’ll never be happy. Or maybe you will be happy, I have no idea. To me, it just seems like a lot of extra work and stress. At my age, I’m trying to move more slowly and thoughtfully, not reacting to flavors of the month.

Then there’s expertise status games. When something is hot, people want to be seen as the “expert” in that subject area. When AI got hot, everyone (including crypto bros who can barely spell AI) were suddenly AI experts. Now everyone is an ontology expert. And expect people to start flexing about being context graph experts next week, or at least until the next fad comes along.

I encounter this with my data modeling book. There’s always someone who wants to nerd snipe me with some obscure data modeling trivia or approach. And if I don’t know about it, or don’t acknowledge it in my book, then I’m inferior and failed the status game. It reminds me of hipsters who always find some flaw in your music collection or knowledge of some tidbit about a band. Some people obsess over the strangest stuff, and if that’s what you’re into, cool.

For me, my status game is about my impact on the industry and educating people, especially the next generation. I love getting messages from people who say my writing and content helped them learn something, get a new job, and change their life for the better. Education and content is beautiful because it’s multiplicative, not zero-sum. In consulting or SaaS, if I win a deal, you lose it, and vice versa. In education, the more someone learns, the more they want to seek out different angles. I’m much happier playing this game than the zero-sum games of my past.

In the end, these status games are mostly meaningless. But we’re also wired for status games, and they’re necessary in the weird sense they keep society moving along.

What’s the “status game” you’re currently playing? Why do you play it? Drop a note in the comments.

Also, listen to this as a podcast. Available on Spotify, Apple, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Please support the show with a review. It means a lot, especially in the ratings status game.

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In other news, I just finished the last big chapter of Mixed Model Arts (Book 1). It covers modeling business processes and domains.

It was a fun one to write. I’m sure everyone has their own “pet approach” to this, and I’m not claiming to cover every single one. That’s not the point. I’m sharing what has actually worked for me in the trenches, leaning on my experiences and background (Lean, etc).

I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with this book. I’ll be heads-down editing and building the parallel course over the coming months. Fresh weekly articles and chapter updates will be dropped on Practical Data Modeling. If you’re not a subscriber, become one.

Have a great weekend,

Joe

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Awesome Upcoming Events

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I’ll be at Data Day Texas! Use code MFJOEREIS for a 20% discount. Also, this will be the final DDT, which makes me sad, but it is what it is. Era’s end. Let’s have BBQ and drinks. See you there.

Still working on my 2026 event schedule, and so far it looks dope. Will reveal more soon, so stay tuned…

See my upcoming events, which are also posted here.

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But wait, there’s more!

Cool Reads and Videos

Bill Inmon, Roger Whatley, and I recorded a wonderful podcast last month at Bill’s home, where we discussed the history of computing and technology. The tech industry tends to discard its history, and those who built it. Bill and Roger captured their personal stories and experiences, the heroes of yesteryear, and much more in their new book Stone to Silicon. Definitely worth reading.

Here are some things I read this week that you might enjoy.

“Microslop” trends in backlash to Microsoft’s AI obsession | Windows Central

AI agents 2026’s biggest insider threat: PANW security boss • The Register

Databases in 2025: A Year in Review // Blog // Andy Pavlo - Carnegie Mellon University

DEFINING DATA ARCHITECTURE - DATA VAULT AND MEDALLION

Three wishes for data and AI in 2026 - by Boyan Angelov

Try to Take My Position: The Best Promotion Advice I Ever Got

Claude Code is about so much more than coding

15 Scenarios That Could Stun the World in 2026 - POLITICO

Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit

Is this the end of American capitalism?

Sonar Data Reveals Critical “Verification Gap” in AI Coding: 96% Don’t Fully Trust Output, Yet Only 48% Verify It

Amazon Layoffs - In My Own Words - 1.6.25

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