Everything about you is decided in the first few days of entering a new territory. The first few people you talk to end up being the people you spend most of your time with. It's in these moments where your position in the social hierarchy is chosen for you. A human may try to change their image when they enter a new place that is full of strangers. "Nobody knows me here I can be someone different" is what they think but they forget no matter how much a deer may want to become a bear the fate has already been decided. What's more interesting is that somehow in the starting days of these stranger places the first few people you talk to will exactly be like you. Popular people end up with other popular people and the outcasts are shunned together, it's almost like even without words each person's personality has its own law of attraction which only attracts people who are similar to them.
In a working ecosystem, who eats who isn't decided by the ones who get eaten, not even the one who eats decides what it'll eat; everything is decided for them. Any normal person will look at the natural ecosystem and say it's for the best or that's just how things are, some may not like that one species has to end their life for the benefits of others but no one can change the order. A lion can not survive on grass and a deer can't digest meat. So why do people think they can change their position on social scale? Is it wishful thinking? Just some hope to keep them trying?
Certainly you can try to deny that there is something like social hierarchy in the first place. If there is no ecosystem to reference any species can make the argument that they are free of cycle of life. But that would just be feigning ignorance, denying something that's always in your face all the time, though I would certainly give you some points for having the ability to act oblivious to something this big. Or maybe you can act like you are not affected by the social norms, observing the ecosystem from your own position, believing no one will try to approach you if you can move away from everyone, taking yourself out of the picture. That would allow you to still claim freedom while still being able to observe and on occasions interact with nature.
However, one thing people forget is that it's not just you who is part of this social ecosystem, everyone else is too. Even if you try to take yourself out of the picture or ignore this system of hierarchy, you will still be a part of it; and not on the top of it.
But what if there was something you could do to change your position in the hierarchy?
The problem rises when your personality attracts someone else with a similar personality, the idols all gather together, form the top; eventually all places get filled. Athletes, the hot chicks, book smarts, nerds all find their places within the pyramid, and anyone who can't fit gets thrown right to the bottom as the outcasts.
So if it's personality that determines your place in the ecosystem then what would happen if someone decides to totally destroy their personality and start with a blank page, one that can be written by anyone according to them?
If someone can manipulate their personality according to the person that is in front of them, wouldn't it allow them to play with the ecosystem as they wish, "wolf in sheep's clothing" or something like that.
"Someone who can be whoever others need? That person must surely be popular."
That's what people think when I tell them someone like that can exist. Someone who can use themself as a wildcard must surely be popular right? Someone who understands all social cues, knows how to carry themselves in every situation, if someone like that can exist they have to be popular right? But someone who understands how everything in a social circle works might just not want to be popular, and if that is possible wouldn't it also be possible that even if someone can have that capability to manipulate their personality to such an extent even then they are not popular?
Someone who sees through all the social cues and the social hierarchy that's based on just the personality and who meets who first can also see through the facade that's put up by people around them. Outcasts will be forced to act like outcasts and the idols will have to maintain their images because if a person does something that is out of their area of hierarchy they will be a threat to the ecosystem itself. Everyone in the ecosystem knows that whether they admit it or not. If you don't fit in within your determined place you will be shunned.
Only someone who can change their place in the ecosystem can see who superficial these relationships are which means to change your place you just have to become even more superficial and wear a bigger facade. For someone to fit anywhere they want that person has to become the most average person they can, having every personality to fit in any circle they like. Of course you can't become the top of the hierarchy like that but you will always have a place.
Someone who truly understands the working of the ecosystem will surely end up living a quiet average life.