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Reasons not to become famous

tim.blog

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Re: Reasons not to become famous

#181

Post by DenisM »

If the problem is so widespread I imagine that all the really rich and famous have A few people on staff to filter incoming correspondence, triage and follow up on credible threats, check with police as needed etc.

What of the modestly famous and not that rich? There ought to be an agency where one could outsource this sort of work for a fraction of the in-house cost. The agency would accumulate experience and might even keep the database of known crazies which gives it economy of scale.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#182

Post by k__ »

nlh wrote: post #131

The stalker thing is real - and I didn’t realize how real until a buddy who’s a moderately-successful YouTuber (750k subs) got his very own. Thankfully it’s a relatively benign case, but man, it’s real. There’s a kid who, for the past ~10 years, calls him Every. Single. Day. Without fail. For 10 years (that’s 3600+ phone calls). He leaves a voicemail and just talks about his day - what video games he’s playing, etc.…

Yes.

A friend of mine is a famous musician and there is a women who somehow pops up on most public events he visits. He's often too nice and hugs her before telling her that she should leave him alone because he's there in private with his friends.

He's always "yes, stalkers bother me a bit, but they aren't that bad"

Well, yes, if it's a small cute woman bothering you now and then it's not that bad, but who has the luck to only get such harmless stalkers?

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#183

Post by bittercynic »

afpx wrote: post #119

Regarding the stalking ... Reminds me of a recent "Hidden Brain" episode - about "Secret Friends" - people of whom others believe to be friends but aren't. The show implied it's fairly easy for the Human Brain to develop a belief those whom are seen or heard often are friends, even if not known personally. Tim mentions feeling that he is a tribal leader of millions of people. And, he definitely has the attention of t…

I don't think it's a crazy thought at all - being famous gives a person some kind of power, and I think some responsibility comes with that.

However, if a famous person behaves in a way that doesn't seem to be fulfilling that responsibility I think the best we can do is ignore them - trying to enforce our idea of responsibility in this area seems unlikely to be a net positive.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#184

Post by ffdjjjffjj »

sneak wrote: post #137
grawprog wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, the only time i've had to sign a waiver is right before i've been doing something dangerous or life threatening. If a date made me sign a waiver before entering their home I'd be wondering what kind of fucked up things they've got planned and probably turn around and leave right there.

I have yet to encounter anyone who had any issue with it. Personally, I work at home and wouldn’t want anyone in the building who potentially had access to my office (it’s locked, but still) to not be under NDA at the very least. Opportunistic lawsuits make the liability waiver part important. Hurt feelings when dating necessitates the non-disparagement clause. Several times I’ve had people I’ve politely rejected say…

How many of these have you tried to enforce?

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#185

Post by Mountain_Skies »

Tim's post reminds me of a video the 8-Bit Guy did a while back about how many people contact him, both to try to strike up a conversation and to offer him their old 8-bit treasures. He sounded rather annoyed by the whole thing but he is a big star in the 8-bit pond so it comes with the territory. For his area of coverage, there is lots of childhood nostalgia involved so this might make his viewer connected with the channel (and him) to a greater extent than you'd otherwise think. Likewise in Tim's area of personal development, he makes an emotional impact on a large crowd. Strength of emotional connection times crowd size is going to be the big factors here.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#186

Post by munificent »

dvtrn wrote: post #180
keiferski wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kevin Hart was known as Lil’ Kev the Bastard until one of his early mentor told him to drop that nickname. This is also just a monumentally bad name. In comedy alone, there are plenty of people with nicknames or not-their-actual name: - Louis C.K. (Louis Székely) - Jon Stewart (Jon Leibowitz) - Larry the Cable Guy (Daniel Lawrence Whitney) - Mel Brooks (Melvyn Kaminsky) - Gene Wilder (Jerome Silberman) - Tim Allen…

I never in my life expected to learn on a random groggy Sunday morning, on a message board for tech that Tim Allen was using a pseudonym.

Wait until you find out he was a coke dealer who only escaped a life sentence by turning informant:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Allen#Career

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#187

Post by Spooky23 »

mprev wrote: post #176
nlh wrote: post #131

The stalker thing is real - and I didn’t realize how real until a buddy who’s a moderately-successful YouTuber (750k subs) got his very own. Thankfully it’s a relatively benign case, but man, it’s real. There’s a kid who, for the past ~10 years, calls him Every. Single. Day. Without fail. For 10 years (that’s 3600+ phone calls). He leaves a voicemail and just talks about his day - what video games he’s playing, etc.…

Could he change his number?

That can trigger the stalker to escalate.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#188

Post by williamdclt »

paganel wrote: post #34
mft_ wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen. My experience exactly. I’ve tried to express this a few times online and fallen foul of offended introverts - my observation is that some people like to use the label of being an introvert as a shield or justification of (their dissatisfaction with?) their shy or antisocial behavioural traits.

There’s nothing wrong with avoiding social relationships if that person so desires, if anything accusing said person of “antisocial behavioral traits” does more harm than good.

> There’s nothing wrong with avoiding social relationships if that person so desires

Well yes and no. Socially, that's nobody's business indeed. Professionally, that can be a problem or at the very least a weakness. Social relationship are a skill, being bad at it isn't neutral.

Sure you can be wanting to avoid social relationships while being good at it, but I doubt this is any sort of common.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#189

Post by yowlingcat »

econcon wrote: post #86
keiferski wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was saying that most physiques are easier to reach with steroids; Sure, this is somewhat true, but the difference isn't enough to be worth the side effects, unless you're going for the huge bodybuilder physique. Diet, exercise and time will get you results that 99% of people find impressive. > and some are only achievable with steroids, ie achievable at all. True, but these sort of physiques are definitely not th…

>especially if you're a millionaire and can afford a personal trainer and meal-planner. Born to immigrant parents I was always taught to work hard so I ended up with good work ethics and strong willpower - I never skipped training and I was mostly self driven, do not need external encouragement to walk towards my goal. Yes, now people ask how did you achieve this physique? I never tell them it's steroid because who w…

> If other guys around you set expectations of physique not naturally achievable there is not much you can do.

I find this thread fascinating because it's almost common knowledge that this is true for women in contemporary society. It should come as no surprise that this is also the case for men. The looks arms race continues.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#190

Post by Mountain_Skies »

mathattack wrote: post #150
christiansakai wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow, that seems true. What is the reason for this?

Avoiding racism, anti-semitism, etc.

In contrast to people like John Stewart who changed his name to sound less Jewish, Whoopie Goldberg (born Caryn Elaine Johnson) changed her name to sound more Jewish. She said she changed her name early in her career to sound Jewish because it would help her career. It's interesting that both of these very successful actors/comedians started from very different assumptions but in the end both ended up being top people in their field.
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