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

dariusforoux.com

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

#71

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

jedberg wrote: post #60
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dammit. I totally forgot that I have an avocado ripening... should be perfect just about now, but ate the last of my brioche for breakfast. I'm seriously not kidding. I've never had avocado toast (was going to make guac) and I'm thinking that brioche avocado toast would be amazing.

It is pretty good with a nice ripe avocado. Just remember you have to choose between buying a house and eating that toast.

Maybe the reason I have a house is because I've skipped avocado toast for the last 20 years ;-)

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

#72

Post by Volundr »

jl6 wrote: post #47
PuppyTailWags wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe not, but they can probably make that (and potentially a lot more) with a minor YouTube hustle.

YouTube is far from a sure thing. For every channel that reaches even moderate success there are many, many more that go nowhere.

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

#73

Post by hnov »

blibble wrote: post #59
hnov wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The experience is pretty different though, you save 30+ minutes at either end, you're not nickel and dimed, the crew and clientele tends to be nicer.

being trapped in a small jet full of people that want to be being seen for flying private seems like my personal version of hell

Hasn't been my experience, there's the occasional first-timer who's posturing for instagram but for the most part people are aware that they're on a commercial flight that for the time being gets to sidestep the nightmare that is the typical terminal.

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

#74

Post by ohgodplsno »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #69
ohgodplsno wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which body part would you rather have for that 0.1 child? Or do you just share time with 10 other parents?

A healthy child 1/10th the size of a normal child would suffice. Women would say 'he's so cute!'

Ah yes. Often known as a cat

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

#75

Post by papichulo4 »

If it's going to take concentrated effort to get out of, that to me implies that the default is "broken," and while I agree with the sentiment in the article, I don't know how we address it systematically for society. Something draconian like banning social media doesn't sound right.

As I pose the question of how we "fix it," I can't help but question how we know if it's something to be fixed at all. I agree that it's making our lives today harder to bear socially and mentally. But, it could also be a natural part of the evolution of our species, perhaps this is the way to get to the trillion-people across multiple-planets scale? Perhaps we individually suffer, mentally or otherwise a bit more than the previous generation, to allow for the maximum number of humans to succeed at a given time.

I too miss being able to focus and long for the now seemingly serene world of the 90s. I too feel distracted by gadgets, apps, politics. But I'm also intrigued by the idea of a future where there are 100 x Einsteins alive, which may come at the cost of having 10000 x Kardashians.

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

#76

Post by chucksmash »

ryeights wrote: post #54
hindsightbias wrote: post #22

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

And right back at you. To think otherwise is arrogant and self-aggrandizing.

Or perhaps it's not quite as binary as "either you believe success is all luck or you're arrogant."

There's a lovely book, "The Drunkard's Walk - How Randomness Rules Our Lives" that has a good take on this.

I don't have time to find the passage right now, but the idea is essentially this: even if you work in an endeavour where success is overwhelmingly driven by luck, success still requires: taking a chance to have the opportunity to become lucky, an open mind and preparation to recognize the good luck that has occurred, and the skill to exploit the opportunity that luckiness has brought.

One must make chances for luck to occur, and one must have a prepared mind to take advantage of luck when it does occur.

I wouldn't necessarily read the replier as saying they have succeeded and luck had nothing to do with it (i.e. the binary view).

The problem with a view point of "it's all luck," IMO is this will lead you down the path of learned helplessness and even if you do get lucky you won't be in a position to capitalize because if you thought it came down to a roll of the dice, why would you bother skilling up in the first place?

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

#77

Post by dayjaby »

wpietri wrote: post #40
PuppyTailWags wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yup. When I had a newspaper route in the 1980s, I was getting paid the same per paper delivered as my grandfather was 50 years prior: 2 cents. It reminds me of how people shit on today's college students without realizing how much college costs have risen. I get the initial "kids these days" reaction, but holy moly, fellow olds, please use Google to update your priors a bit.

I am so lucky to have delivered newspapers in the 2000s for 3ct a piece, in a village. I am sorry that you didn't have this great opportunity.

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

#78

Post by bee_rider »

throwaway8582 wrote: post #67
bee_rider wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I agree this was a bad example. Of course people who try and copy the strategy of a very successful person are not going to be as successful themselves, because the people that come later are going to be competing with millions of others doing the same thing. If you want that level of success, you probably have to be ahead of the curve and do something different from what most people are currently doing.

Or in fields where we're fighting the universe rather than each other, trying to make progress with your hero's strategy is probably going to be very difficult -- to the extent that there's such a thing as "raw intelligence," Einstein definitely had more of it than I do, so if I was going to look into physics, I'd not want to look at the problems he didn't complete, using his strategy! (of course, this is why fields build up an increasingly advanced framework, after the trailblazers have passed through).

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

#79

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

wpietri wrote: post #40
PuppyTailWags wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yup. When I had a newspaper route in the 1980s, I was getting paid the same per paper delivered as my grandfather was 50 years prior: 2 cents. It reminds me of how people shit on today's college students without realizing how much college costs have risen. I get the initial "kids these days" reaction, but holy moly, fellow olds, please use Google to update your priors a bit.

Drives me bonkers.

There was a time when you could just work a minimum wage part time over the summer and it would pay for college the rest of the year.

Now, you can work minimum wage full time year-round and if you're lucky, you MIGHT cover tuition at a community college if you're still living with your parents and they don't charge rent.

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

#80

Post by ryeights »

chucksmash wrote: post #76
ryeights wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And right back at you. To think otherwise is arrogant and self-aggrandizing.

Or perhaps it's not quite as binary as "either you believe success is all luck or you're arrogant." There's a lovely book, "The Drunkard's Walk - How Randomness Rules Our Lives" that has a good take on this. I don't have time to find the passage right now, but the idea is essentially this: even if you work in an endeavour where success is overwhelmingly driven by luck, success still requires: taking a chance to have…

Nobody is claiming that success is 100% attributable to luck. The claim is that becoming rich and famous is mostly luck-driven (see the quote in OP's comment), which I think is absolutely true.

Believing otherwise leads the rich and famous to think that they are better than everyone else, and the less successful to think that they are inherently inferior, when in reality there is a wide overlap in effort, dedication, and strategy between the two groups. One group was just in the right place at the right time while applying those skills, and the other wasn't.

In other words, not becoming rich and famous is not a personal failing. Sometimes you can try anyone's best and simply not succeed.

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