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Reasons not to become famous

tim.blog

261–270 of 428 posts

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#262
An unfortunate consequence of fame is that celebrities are sometimes forced to take counter surveillance matters into their own hands.

As it’s difficult for a celebrity to accept new people into their inner circle without knowing their motives, pre-emptive measures can be used to vet outsiders. The unfortunate consequence of this is the application of questionable methods by shady security forces. Celebrities don’t have their own Secret Service detail so they end up relying upon their peers to perform investigations of outsiders entering their fold. This can be disastrous all around, particularly when there exists political and cultural disparities amongst involved parties. Speaking from experience.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#263
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…

Good analysis, I think. > And really what is the practical difference between having $20m and $2b? Sure you'll have nicer houses and more of them. You may well have a super-yacht at that point. But who cares? I know I don't. I found this Reddit comment [1] insightful on that front. Don't know to its validity but have seen it linked to in a few different places. > $1billion > I am going to exclude the $10b+ crowd, bec…

Even just in terms of money. $20 million invested is--depending upon your assumptions--something like $1 million/year ~risk-free without touching the principle. (OK, a diversified portfolio is probably going to do better than that but that gives something of a baseline.)

Obviously that's a pretty nice passive income stream. But it's not really have a couple nice homes in prime locations, hire full-time assistants, fly private jets everywhere, etc. sort of money.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#264
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fourth reason: To be to be remembered after you’re gone.

Thing is, nothing matters to you after you are gone. Unless we become ghosts that can observe. Unlikely

Just because the results of it are non-observable (fair assumption) to the person leaving some sort of legacy behind them, doesn’t mean that doing so isn’t valuable to them. It is the satisfaction you get while still living, knowing that after you are gone, some (hopefully positive) remnants of you will still live on.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#265
post #192

Can anyone comment on his statement that having mail delivered to your house puts you on searchable commercial lists? I’m wondering if it’s actually physical mail that’s at issue, or rather having your home address as say a billing address on a site you buy something from. This one seemed fairly tough to avoid 100%, so I want to know more about the plausibility.

I worked for a company that bought mailing lists and linked them to public records. We didn’t sell to marketers but it did open my eyes that anyone who isn’t prohibited will sell info. Some industries (utilities, banking) are prohibited from selling customer info. But most aren’t. If you ever subscribe to a magazine, donate to a charity, enter a sweepstakes, etc your info goes into commercial lists.

Gotcha. So not just physical mail: anything with your physical address on it that isn't prohibited from selling it may do so.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#266

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…

What sounds "black" about her birth name?

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#267
post #242

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…

The 8-Bit Guy is fascinating persona, because he manages to maintain two segregated public personalities, both with heavy YouTube presence. (The other one is a 2A NRA gun touter, the kind who takes their rifle to a restaurant and films it)

Wow, didn't know about his other persona. I knew he has a channel named 8bit Keys but since I'm not musically inclined, haven't watched it much. Maybe his gun channel helps keep the types of fans Tim complains about away.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#268
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fourth reason: To be to be remembered after you’re gone.

Thing is, nothing matters to you after you are gone. Unless we become ghosts that can observe. Unlikely

Thought exercise: A malicious but trustworthy djinn appears to you. He tells you that one minute after your death, he's going to release magically faked evidence that you were a violent pedophilie.

All of your remaining friends and family will believe this, and the case will be so bad that your name will become associated around the world for the sheer heinousness and reprehensibility of the things you supposedly did. However the djinn is willing to bind himself to not doing this, but you have to pay him $1 right now.

If "nothing matters after you are gone", then you wouldn't even be willing to pay $1 to avoid this scenario.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#269
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Donald Trump decided to refer to Jon Stewart as Jon Leibowitz, I can't think why

You think he knows him personally from the synagogue Jared Kushner and his daughter attend?

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#270
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.

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 c…

Interesting analogy.

From my perspective (as an introvert) I would replace the "Introvert" line with:

* Introversion: I may or may not enjoy ice cream, but eating very much makes me exhausted. (Or "I feel full after eating just a bit".)

From my perspective, your analogy makes the very mistake that the grandparent comment brought up: conflating introversion with not liking social interaction.

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