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Reasons not to become famous

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Re: Reasons not to become famous

#201

Post by munificent »

mft_ wrote: post #31
KineticLensman wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I've come to realise is that being introverted isn't necessarily the same as being shy. I consider myself more introverted than extroverted (I'm happy with my own company) but over the years, I've learned to communicate confidently to individuals and groups. A lot of the learning was due to the need to communicate at work (e.g. giving complex presentations / demonstrations to challenging audiences) and also…

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.

Social anxiety, introversion, and antisociability are all different things that often get conflated.

If we replace people with ice cream, I think it works out something like:

* Social anxiety: I'm afraid I will choke on the ice cream.

* Introversion: Ice cream is fine but I don't really enjoy the flavor.

* Anti-social: Ice cream tastes gross.

These all manifest in the same visible way — avoiding ice cream — but the causes are distinct.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#202

Post by luckylion »

Spooky23 wrote: post #187
mprev wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could he change his number?

That can trigger the stalker to escalate.

How? They wouldn't know unless he'd drop the old one. I imagine he isn't calling the kid back to say "hey, got your voice mail, sounds good, keep it up", so the kid wouldn't know that their voice mail goes straight to /dev/null while he uses a different number.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#203

Post by joshspankit »

prepend wrote: post #197
Spooky23 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can trigger the stalker to escalate.

It could also result in the stalker never calling again. I guess it’s important to understand the probability of outcomes before just listing negatives.

Personally if it’s something potentially harmful, I’d rather have it where I can see it.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#204

Post by prostheticvamp »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #190
mathattack wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 peopl…

> 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.

Who says they started with very different assumptions?

Order of preference:

1. White non-jew 2. White jew 3. Black

He changed his name so he could get by more easily as the top-ranked preference. For her, a non-jew white name would be hard to distinguish from black. She chose the name that more affirmatively promoted her above the lowest ranked spot.

I doubt either of them would disagree with the above ranking order, though.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#205

Post by lonelappde »

prostheticvamp wrote: post #204
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 peopl…

> 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. Who says they started with very different assumptions? Order of preference: 1. White non-jew 2. White jew 3. Black He changed his name so he could get by more easily as the top-ranked preference. For her, a non-jew white name would be hard to dist…

#2 is Jew, not White Jew.

Black Jew is rare and intriguing in a way that Black or Jew alone is not.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#206

Post by joshspankit »

One person who has talked about another benefit is Dan Harmon:

(apologies as I don’t remember where or the exact quote)

In an interview he mentioned that his [particular] fame meant that he no longer had to go through the superficial conversations when meeting someone new, that everyone knew enough of his authentic self that they could just jump straight in to meaningful conversation.

I remember this because, for me, that would be the only compelling reason to become famous.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#207

Post by JKCalhoun »

Counterpoint: You want to help people, educate people, lift people up — and your only talent best suited for this is your writing skills, your speaking skills, your musical abilities or your acting skills.

Fame is how you reach a larger audience.

My high school teacher may have inspired a number of his students to love and pursue astronomy, but Carl Sagan inspired orders of magnitudes more.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#208

Post by sergioro »

cletus wrote: post #195

So I only see three reasons to be famous: 1. The attention and adulation is your drug. I think there's no shortage of people who fall into this category. 2. To convert that fame into opportunities you wouldn't otherwise have; and 3. To convert that fame into money. Obviously if you're just plain rich then (3) is moot. If you fall into (1) then money can buy you fame to a degree. So that leaves (2). Wealth will give y…

An extra reason for being famous (could be included in #2 of the above list) is to amplify your positive impact in the world. E.g. if Bezos wasn't famous i'd probably never learned about his business strategies (costumer first, risk taking & innovating, etc). IMO this is the best reason for being famous.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#209

Post by JKCalhoun »

cletus wrote: post #195

So I only see three reasons to be famous: 1. The attention and adulation is your drug. I think there's no shortage of people who fall into this category. 2. To convert that fame into opportunities you wouldn't otherwise have; and 3. To convert that fame into money. Obviously if you're just plain rich then (3) is moot. If you fall into (1) then money can buy you fame to a degree. So that leaves (2). Wealth will give y…

4. Fame is an unavoidable byproduct of your pursuit to reach/help a larger audience.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#210

Post by lonelappde »

fock wrote: post #91
mattmanser wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because stock market crashes never happen?

I don't think the people who are non-obvious rich put their money solely in an index fund. They'll generally have about 50-500 apartment units in some big city, which (if properly insured) guarantees you can weather anything except for wars and asteroids. Maybe they put their earnings into an index fund though ...

$5M in Vanguard also is safe from everything but wars and asteroids.
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