“How impressed everybody is” is the basis of money, law, self-worth and our models of reality
Money
Is it? I don’t try to impress anybody with money I do or don’t have. If you do, consider not doing so. You might find your finances in a better state.
self-worth
Don’t, I repeat, do not base your self worth on what other people think. Listen to their input and make yourself the best person you can be. But if you only have self-worth due to how impressed your neighbors are, you are going to have a very poor life as you make a continued bad decisions.
Law
There are vanishingly few laws that are centered around impressing anybody. The core theme to is to create laws that best allow for the functioning of society. For some easy examples, lack of criminalizing murder, lack of property rights, or lack of a tax code all fuck up modern society pretty quick.
our models of reality
I’m not sure how ‘impressing others’ is part of this at all? Our model of reality, ie physics, chemistry, math, have nothing to do with impressing others?
Trees are carbon neutral. They pull the carbon out and sequester it in themselves. When they rot or burn, the carbon is returned.