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No More “Insight Porn”

jakobgreenfeld.com

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Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#281

Post by jasonwatkinspdx »

vharuck wrote: post #102
enos_feedler wrote: post #4

Out of the 3 "Insight Porn" examples linked in the article, I think the Paul Graham essay seems out of place. I know I know, this is hacker news. Yet another person sticking up for pg. But I just don't think this essay (or others) is really trying to boil some dream/goal into steps. In fact, in the "How to get startup ideas" referenced in this post, pg says: "So if you can't predict whether there's a path out of an i…

>"if you're the right sort of person, you have the right sort of hunches" To me, this sounds like a line from a multi-level marketing pitch. It sounds like they're saying "This may not apply to you," but a lot of people will hear "There are chosen people (and you're probably one of them)." It reminds me of the Calvinism sect of Christianity. They believed in predestination for salvation: God has always known who be a…

Calvinism is still a thing among US Evangelicals btw, most famously George W Bush, which gives some pause for thought vs how hawkish his administration was.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#282

Post by hamiltonians »

Miserlou57 wrote: post #275
deltree7 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expected value is really a dumb way to evaluate lottery tickets. I can't believe even supposedly good mathematicians use it. The next dumb way to evaluate lottery tickets is to compare it with other long odds (lightning strikes, marrying your favorite actor). If you want to play along, the probability of you winning the lottery is 10000000000000x more favorable than the probability of you existing in this universe. B…

I had an argument with my boss about this. He is a business owner and pretty successful one, and he calls the lottery a poverty tax, or a stupidity tax. If it were a game you play in Vegas, then he’d be right. It’s my opinion that just buying one ticket, for say $2, essentially is a trivial and inconsequential amount of money that exposes you to incredible upside. Imagine if the ticket only cost a penny. At that poin…

but it does not cost a penny, hence strongly negative expected value and waste of money and time.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#283

Post by tracerbulletx »

hamiltonians wrote: post #282
Miserlou57 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an argument with my boss about this. He is a business owner and pretty successful one, and he calls the lottery a poverty tax, or a stupidity tax. If it were a game you play in Vegas, then he’d be right. It’s my opinion that just buying one ticket, for say $2, essentially is a trivial and inconsequential amount of money that exposes you to incredible upside. Imagine if the ticket only cost a penny. At that poin…

but it does not cost a penny, hence strongly negative expected value and waste of money and time.

There are sometimes jackpot sizes that have a positive EV.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#284

Post by ZephyrBlu »

holoduke wrote: post #228
MOARDONGZPLZ wrote: post #28

I got super lucky. I started a company and didn’t really have any meaningful traction. I was about to shut it down. Walking out of the grocery store one night after work, I passed by my former manager when I was an intern. We got to talk for about 30 seconds, mentioned my company, she asked me to email her. I did, and that very quickly led to my first big customer which makes me about double what a FAANG swe would ma…

It's always easy to say it's luck. But I don't think it is. You created opportunity. And that's the key thing. Create opportunities. As many as possible. I did something similar. Started with a dollar a day. Ended up with several thousands a day. The only thing I consider luck is the fact that a grew up in a stable family in a rich country where I got faced with computers at a very early age. I received enough time t…

It's astounding that you try to spin this as him "creating opportunity". This is dumb luck, plain and simple.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#285

Post by luord »

Well, how sad. I have liked what Jakob wrote quite a bit but not only does this article betray a lack of self awareness as it describes quite a few of his own posts—not that there's anything wrong with that as he has published truly insightful things too and the fluff I still liked for the positivity—but then he used an essay by PG as an example of this.

And now I'm not one of those people who think that everything PG writes is gold, but it's hardly "insight porn". In fact, if that particular essay is "advice", it's the advice to not even try as it's likely just not for you, so it almost seems like Greenfeld misrepresented it just because of a single sentence.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#286

Post by wholinator2 »

jackling wrote: post #180
wholinator2 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I agree. Though I will say that doesn't mean epiphanies aren't valuable long term. A little boost to get you started might translate into a huge change in personal circumstances 10 years after that small boost. Without a couple months with Jordan Peterson relaying not just the possibility but the nobility of looking people in the eyes, entering the forest at the place that looks darkest to you, etc. I would alm…

What always surprised me about Peterson was the fact that so many people swear by his videos. There's multiple claims about how his videos changed their lives or saved them. However, his methodology couldn't keep his own life from going awry.

What exactly has gone awry? I mean, he had some serious troubles when his wife came extremely close to death very suddenly from a terrible illness but who could stay fine watching their high school sweetheart and only love ever rapidly wither right as their lives started to take off together.

Or are you talking about the political aspect? If so I really see nothing going 'awry', he's making choices, certainly not begging for money. Someone may not like what he says or who he talks with but that does not constitute a life 'going awry' inasmuch as his supposed teachings would help avoid

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#288

Post by eutectic »

deltree7 wrote: post #237
nickff wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, one extreme example is buying lottery tickets; it's the best way to expose yourself to the potential upside of winning the lottery, yet the expected value is quite negative. That example is quite bracing, but I think it points out that there are many ways to build this 'luck surface', and the expected values of each are probably very different, and likely situational.

Expected value is really a dumb way to evaluate lottery tickets. I can't believe even supposedly good mathematicians use it. The next dumb way to evaluate lottery tickets is to compare it with other long odds (lightning strikes, marrying your favorite actor). If you want to play along, the probability of you winning the lottery is 10000000000000x more favorable than the probability of you existing in this universe. B…

Probably the real value is even worse than the expected value, because money has diminishing returns to happiness.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#289

Post by deadcoder0904 »

enos_feedler wrote: post #4

Out of the 3 "Insight Porn" examples linked in the article, I think the Paul Graham essay seems out of place. I know I know, this is hacker news. Yet another person sticking up for pg. But I just don't think this essay (or others) is really trying to boil some dream/goal into steps. In fact, in the "How to get startup ideas" referenced in this post, pg says: "So if you can't predict whether there's a path out of an i…

nope, not only this guys examples are bad but he just tries too hard to be a contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. i called him that & he blocked me [1] for some reason. probably there's some truth in it that he got hurt.

his examples are so bad. i've read paul graham's essays, naval's thread & alex hormozi's $100m offers book & all are quite good & easy to understand. naval's thread is a big hard but he has whole bunch of podcasts (4 hours) [2] explaining them in detail & articles [3] to accompany them.

the op's entire schtick is to sell his courses by writing articles. first he wrote an article on build a business, not an audience [4] & then did a complete 180 turn & has been building an audience ever since. then he started selling courses. it's like his schtick is to go against the popular ideas & attack them to garner following.

although, he does have some good insights in a few of his articles like when he summarized a book (nathan latka) or a video (sam parr)... rest of his posts are purely trying to hard to be a contrarian. tries to hard to be like peter thiel except he doesn't have any real arguments.

you don't have to believe me. just read $100m offers & apply it. that book could've saved me many years of trying to figure out the framework myself & has every single technique mentioned on how to make a good offer. if you actually follow the advice to the t, you will actually be on the pathway to your 1st million. not to say, the author himself is worth >$100m & has a portfolio of companies making $150m/year so he'll be a billionaire in a year or two. you don't become a billionaire without any real insights unless you are a trust fund baby.

[1]: https://twitter.com/deadcoder0904/status/1528327537872760833

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-TZqOsVCNM

[3]: https://nav.al/rich

[4]: https://jakobgreenfeld.com/build_an_audience

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#290

Post by int_19h »

throwaway98797 wrote: post #125
jjj123 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re right it’s not helpful towards the goal of becoming an entrepreneur or whatever, but I disagree that it’s not helpful at the macro level. We should all have this basic understanding of how our society works, and how our plutocrats got to be in the position they are in. We’re fed myths that they all started from the bottom and worked hard enough and smart enough to get where they are, and you can do it too! And…

> We’re fed myths that they all started from the bottom and worked hard enough and smart enough to get where they are, and you can do it too! i know this may be rhetoric but i’ve never heard someone say that. a lot of folks in power say “I got lucky but also worked hard” it’s counter productive to claim the elite is this super disconnected group of people. because they are not and it weakens the case for reform. let’…

If by "reform" you mean keeping these elites, then yeah, there's no case for that kind of reform. We're way past the point where that was viable.

The question now is how much violence will be involved in the next reboot of said elites. That it is coming has been obvious for almost a decade now.

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