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Reasons not to become famous

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Re: Reasons not to become famous

#371

Post by toasterlovin »

paganel wrote: post #334
acoustep wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I can name you lots and lots of broke poets and writers from the last thousand or so years, but I can only name you a handful of wealthy people that died more than 100 years ago: Rockefeller, Carnegie, maybe the first Rotschilds (which one, though?), Jakob Fugger and the Medicis.

I generally agree with you, but I think a counterpoint is that the dynamic which currently obtains, where the merchant class is on equal footing with the political class in terms of power and influence, is a relatively new phenomena. For most of history, people simply farmed the land and the only notables were the (relatively small) political class that wielded power, mostly at the tip of a sword.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#372

Post by econcon »

drcode wrote: post #350
Zenbit_UX wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just looked it up, definitely not a body builder. Incredible physique? Yes. Bodybuilder? Not even close. I'd estimate he's around 175lbs there. He'd need almost another 80-100lbs of lean muscle mass to be considered a bodybuilder. The word you're looking for is athletic.

Feel free to use your own favorite definitions for words and call Brad Pitt whatever you want... he still spent a ton of time in the gym doing weight exercises, just like a bodybuilder does.

I think usually body builders are associated with insane size which mostly people don't think can be achieved naturally.

But I've had girls tell me that Arnold during his peak in bodybuilding was all natural and that he has superior genetics than everyone else on the planet which helped them achieve that size.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#373

Post by kirubakaran »

k__ wrote: post #368
tartoran wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way someone looks doesn’t say much about their mental health. Being stalked by someone raises the alarm a bit but sure, not all the time a bad outcome comes of it. Theres the potential to attract nutcases and in my opinion this is a high cost for being famous.

That's true. I knew a guy who dated some crazy woman, because "what's the worst that could happen, she's a small woman, haha". Well, he gravely underestimated her abilities...

If friend were to say that, I'd have them watch "Gone Girl"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2267998/

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#374

Post by backupcavalry »

tuesday20 wrote: post #340
jborichevskiy wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I worked for a small fin tech firm in NYC, saw some high profile people from gov and biz come to the office to meet the owner, who was very rich. Honestly, I found many of them condescending and unpleasant. Money can absolutely get influence and access, but a good heart? Maybe not

In fairness, I suspect that they're cold and unpleasant because of all the vultures that constantly circle them.

When you're being constantly hounded by people that believe that you being wealthy means they inherently deserves a share of it, that'll probably distort your worldview real quick.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#375

Post by airocker »

graeme wrote: post #303
airocker wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos possibly does not want all consumers to know his name or he would have named Amazon "bezos" much like "ford". --bezos fan

Ford motors . It was still a descriptive name. “Bezos everything store?” Harder to start. Amazon allowed flexibility. Can’t infer from choice.

Bezos Books! Sounds good to me.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#376

Post by sifar »

cramey wrote: post #351
throw18374 wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I plan on following in Warren Buffett’s footsteps. Without his influence, I would be working the graveyard shift at a gas station right now. End goal career-wise is to amass as much wealth as possible by giving smart and capable people a path to building new things that benefit everyone, and then direct that amassed wealth toward the betterment of humanity before I die. I’m not sure exactly how I’ll do that. I actual…

Alright, I'll bite. How do you feed and shelter people without feeding and sheltering them?

It means enabling them to do it themselves and not make them dependent on someone's aid. Creating such an environment and opportunities, bootstrapping them so to speak.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#377

Post by graeme »

airocker wrote: post #375
graeme wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ford motors . It was still a descriptive name. “Bezos everything store?” Harder to start. Amazon allowed flexibility. Can’t infer from choice.

Bezos Books! Sounds good to me.

You’re joking, right?

It’s a great name for a bookstore. But you’d have to change it once it grew. And you’d retain the book brand longer than amazon did.

The Ford motors name worked for generations because Ford stayed in motors.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#378

Post by graeme »

accidentalrebel wrote: post #365
graeme wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a big difference between being known in your field and being generally famous as Tim Ferriss is talking about. I am well known in my field and it has all the benefits you speak of. But it’s not a large field. So I have none of the negatives that the article speaks of.

> There’s a big difference between being known in your field and being generally famous as Tim Ferriss is talking about. Thanks for actually making me realize this distinction. Kinda like being known for something instead of being famous for something. Does that make sense?

Possibly. Do you mean that in the sense on the article where a producer said it’s best if: “people know your face but not your name”?

That’s definitely a distinction.

But I actually meant it in the sense that most fields and sub fields are so small that you can be legit famous within them but have no problems of fame because the number of people involved is tiny.

But if the field grew 100-1000x, you would then have problems of fame with the sheer numbers.

Think of whatever speciality you’re in, then consider you probably know what 1-5 notable people in the field look or sound like, without knowing them personally. That’s essentially what fame is: the effects only get odd when the field is so generally that much larger numbers will recognize that same person. Some portion of any sufficiently large group will be over enthusiastic or malevolent.

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#379

Post by wishinghand »

baby wrote: post #223
DenisM wrote: post #181

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…

here's a start up idea

I don't think it could work due to this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22284623

Re: Reasons not to become famous

#380

Post by unreal37 »

Perseids wrote: post #256
JKCalhoun wrote: post #207

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.

Counter-counterpoint: If you are not too picky about the type of good you want to do, money can buy you an astonishing amount of it. See the effective altruism movement, e.g. https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/impact-calculator/ . For a thousand dollars you can provide 781 person-years of save drinking water or purchase 500 bednets to protect against malaria. Unless you are over-proportionally suited or talented at be…

I think an argument can be made that, if an artist doesn't create their art because they figure they can earn more money as an investment banker and donate money to causes they care about instead, the world is actually worse off as a result.
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