‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times • Hacker News Board

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#21

Post by immigrantheart » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:37 PM UTC

I guess it depends on the definition of rich and famous. How rich? How famous?

These two doesn't come alone. They come with their own baggage as well. Being rich will make you, and your family targeted, either by criminals, by "friends and families", or by the government. Being famous is tiring. You constantly need to pander with people that you don't know, with papparazis, with friends of friends of friends, people constantly looking to network. Being famous without being rich is even worse. You just get death threats, hate mail, etc without the financial means to fend off those.

I want to be rich enough so that I don't have to worry about the future or I can do any work I want without worrying about money, for example, creating music, working on a hobby, etc.

I want to be famous enough so that the people that I care remember who I was, who I am, and who I will be, even when I am no longer in their lives, and live across the world.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#22

Post by hindsightbias » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:38 PM UTC

> Same strategy, same actions, different times, different outcomes. Becoming rich and famous is mostly a matter of luck.

Best of luck with that view.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#23

Post by dougmwne » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:39 PM UTC

I think this is very relevant to many people I’ve known who try to start their own business. A successful business is a reality test.

You can’t profit if your customers all live in your fantasies. If you create products for those imaginary people, no one will buy them and you will fail. That’s why product-market fit is the #1 advice given to entrepreneurs. It recognizes that you will need to leave behind your own ideas of what you should build and who your should build it for, which are probably made out of a lifetime of TV and Social Media bullshit and actually take stock of the real world, the real people in it and what they will pay real money for.

Sadly, quite a few people I know were able to run their fantasy business all the way to the poor house.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#24

Post by Invictus0 » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:39 PM UTC

Getting rich isn't that hard. Just be born in America or Europe, most careers will afford a comfortable lifestyle. If you want to be richer than that, study engineering or business. Your average businessman does math at the 8th grade level.

Getting famous also isn't that hard. Do something funny or creative and post it on TikTok, it's not that hard to get a video with 1e5 or 1e6 views. Hell, you can post cute videos of your pet and get 1e6 views.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#25

Post by rr3932 » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:41 PM UTC

hindsightbias wrote: post #20

sylens wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that what the author was saying though? These "affordable" private jets were really not providing the perks of a private jet; they were essentially just chartering a standard plane.

He’s saying that because he thinks they want to brag. But there’s a completely 100% rational reason for doing it that he completely ignores. Given the choice of going to a destination for the same price (or at least “affordable”), would you A) fly commercial B) fly private?

There's also the "to/from more conveniently located airports, bringing family pets along, having private conversations among the pax, having exactly the catering you wanted" perks, apparently. I've not had the pleasure to fly "private" yet so I wouldn't know. :)

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#26

Post by samatman » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:41 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #14

rufus_foreman wrote: post #6

>> Person A was born in 1930. Person B was born seventy years later, in 2000. They both start applying the Graham investing strategy at a very early age, let’s say when they were 15 years. >> Person A becomes Warren Buffett, once the richest man on earth, who experienced one of the biggest booms in value stocks when he was young. Person B loses half of their money because value stocks are out of favor in the 2010s Bu…

> you should have a pretty high rate of success. I'm pretty sure that multiple orders of magnitude more people spent their entire lives trying to become extremely rich than the few hundred it worked out for.

There are a great deal more people who think they're trying to become extremely rich, but aren't, than there are people who, for example, think they're trying to become extremely good at violin, but aren't.

It's not a retrospective difference, one good way to spot the poseurs: they aren't violently allergic to spending money in a way that doesn't get them more, or at least make that possible. That's table stakes for trying; I don't have the allergy, but I don't fool myself about it either.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#27

Post by sbf501 » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:44 PM UTC

In the Buffet example, OP left out that once you cross a certain threshold of wealth, it is almost impossible to NOT make more. There are hedge funds, exchanges, shell corporations, ways of diffusing assets across businesses, and other strategies that only people with hundreds of millions can access. Not to mention many laws basically stop applying to you once you achieve a certain level of wealth because the vehicles are so complex it is hard to prosecute.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#28

Post by PuppyTailWags » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:45 PM UTC

rufus_foreman wrote: post #16

zehaeva wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the equivalent of ~$240k in today's dollars!

>> In 1945, as a high school sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in three different barber shops across Omaha. They sold the business later in the year for $1,200 That's ~$20k in today's dollars in a few months while still in high school. >> At 15, Warren made more than $175 monthly deliver…

A 15 year old today cannot make ~$3k a month delivering Washington Post newspapers. I think the point still stands what much of wealth gain is lucky opportunity windows, such as being alive during a time where a job like newspaper delivery pays 3k a month.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#29

Post by ISL » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:49 PM UTC

> Ask 100 ten-year-olds what they want to do, and I’d guess 99 of them will say something that’s related to becoming rich or famous: A musician, YouTuber, actor, NBA player, Elon Musk, and so forth.

People actually do ask this question of large numbers of kids regularly. Here's one:

https://www.approvedcourse.com/when-i-grow-up/

Top three in that survey were doctor, teacher, astronaut. (I have read other surveys where YouTuber was high on the list -- my point here is that there actually are surveys, no need to speculate about their results.)

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#30

Post by bee_rider » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:49 PM UTC

rufus_foreman wrote: post #6

>> Person A was born in 1930. Person B was born seventy years later, in 2000. They both start applying the Graham investing strategy at a very early age, let’s say when they were 15 years. >> Person A becomes Warren Buffett, once the richest man on earth, who experienced one of the biggest booms in value stocks when he was young. Person B loses half of their money because value stocks are out of favor in the 2010s Bu…

It is sort of tangential to his point, but the Buffett example seems kind of weird to me. Investing is inherently competitive. Surely the strategy that Buffett (or any other large investor) used to get big would now be obsolete?