 How do you increase your status? Men gain a lot of status through intelligence is a simple way. People underestimate that. Cutting edge in elect, which is not something that you have to be Albert Einstein with. I'll tell you this. Read, man. I've seen this happen 50 times in my life. When you're reading something, you'll be able to offer people insight, even people smarter than you, and they'll see that as kind of reciprocal altruism.