Best copy
Humans are different from other animals in the fastidiousness with which we copy others. Says Rob Henderson:
High-fidelity imitation is unique to humans.
If a chimpanzee views a person perform a series of superfluous actions, along with one single necessary action, in order to obtain a piece of food, the chimpanzee will skip the superfluous action, and perform only the necessary one.
In contrast, children will copy every single action, including the unnecessary ones.
In these studies, chimps are behaving more rationally than humans. There is no wasted motion to obtain the reward.
But the human ability to over-imitate is a key reason why humans have survived and outcompeted other species.
More than just the copying itself, from whom we copy also matters. As social creatures, we figure out who our leaders are, and we try to copy from them. We can see this from time to time in how popular it becomes to copy the actions of people who are, well, popular.
People try to emulate the mundane behaviors of the successful, for instance by trying to copy the morning routines or diets of prominent individuals. Marketers acknowledge this when they have celebrities endorse products.
At the same time, it’s important to know where the limits are. For instance, the newly elected Republican congressman from New York, George Santos, carried away in copying Donald Trump. He puffed up his résumé in a fashion similar to Trump’s inflated biographies. He told open, brazen lies about his entire past which anyone could discover to be untrue with a bit of effort—much like Trump!
Uh. Where was I?
As Henderson tells us, we should be cautious in the people we copy. High achievers can afford to use counter-signaling—demonstrating they’re so successful that they don’t have to care what others think. Thus, we can observe very wealthy people who no longer dress in expensive fineries to show off their wealth, but instead try to look something like hobos. (This was a thematic running gag in the Ben Stiller movie Zoolander, where the fashion designer character played by Will Ferrel has models dressing exactly like bums, hobos, and prostitutes.)
More Henderson:
An example from Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland: If you’re a top executive, turning up to work on a bicycle is a high-status activity because it was a choice and not a necessity. But if you work at Pizza Hut, turning up on a bike means you can’t afford a car.
As with so much else in life, perhaps the main lesson is not to overdo it. Don’t start out by trying to copy the best in your field, but rather someone who is a bit better and more experienced, rather than the world champion. Besides, you are probably too far removed from the world’s greatest to be able to see the actual details in order to copy them accurately anyway.
But still: George Santos. Yeesh!
Good morning. No TSAF today. The choir has a funeral this morning for one of our members, and the science team is meeting on top of that, and then we're singing at the homeless mission tonight. And the van is in the shop. Good thing I have all these extraneous young gentlemen with drivers licenses and time on their hands.
As with most everything... it is probably important to limit the mimicry to the legality. For example... faking till you make it should stop prior to the actual fraud. (See SBF. "George Santos" (if that is actually his name), Bernie Madoff, Enron executives..., Donald Trump). When people tell you their truths, believe them, they are telling you who they are and they do have tells (See Leona Helmsley, Elizabeth Holmes, Anna Sorokin)--even if those tells are credit card refusals. No need to be deferential when Visa tells you they are effing liars and cheats.