Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

robkhenderson.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 651 posts

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#91

Post by jrm4 »

lullab wrote: post #42
TrackerFF wrote: post #27

Maybe a bit OT: The other day I read an interview with a local guy in his 20s that struck gold with crypto, he'd invest something like $20k, and turned it into $40M. He basically went all in on one alt-coin before the marked exploded late last year, and the coin went up 2000x. When asked about it, he of course came up with a narrative that this wasn't just dumb luck. He had had worked hard for those $20k, and he had…

Maybe the real takeaway from his story is to bet big in a new market to get rich. And if you lose it all, earn more and do it again. It would have happened in the early days of the internet just the same. Yes, it's incredibly risky but at least it has a better chance than playing the lottery. Like Nassim Taleb says, bet on things with a limited downside and unlimited upside. And if you don't try, nothing will happen.

I mean, lets get Taleb exactly right here: He basically says don't invest "moderately," -- like putting your large amounts of money in stocks, even index funds, is a bad idea.

Invest in both extremes, barbell style. Put MOST of it in something bulletproof (he goes with Treasury Bonds) and then the rest as big bets on long shots.

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#92

Post by abc_lisper »

drooby wrote: post #37
ramraj07 wrote: post #20

Seems decently researched but I don’t know why the author felt compelled to add unsubstantiated and totally unnecessary hyperbole about humans only having succeeded because of imitating the whole shebang. It doesn’t even make sense!

It makes sense to me. When an indigenous tribe has some intricate process for transforming a toxic plant into an edible food, and also has no knowledge of the chemistry, the only solution is to copy the entire process unquestioning. We see the same behavior for hunting strategies, building strategies… social control.. religion.

Yep. Insecurity of being wrong and found out plays into it too

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#93

Post by denton-scratch »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #65
nibbleshifter wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even though you can't buy crypto with cash and crypto cannot be converted directly to cash I have bought and sold crypto primarily using cash for the last ten years, what are you talking about. Yes, many people use an exchange. Many do not.

Physical cash? How?

Bitcoin Local offers the opportunity to meet a seller at a physical location. Same with Local Monero. If you're planning to exchange $10M, you'll probably need a couple of bag-carriers, and perhaps some muscle as well.

You can also trade for non-physical "cash", e.g. local bank transfer via escrow. As far as I'm concerned, that's a cash exchange.

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#94

Post by nradov »

steveBK123 wrote: post #47

"An example from Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland: If you’re a top executive, turning up to work on a bicycle is a high-status activity because it was a choice and not a necessity. But if you work at Pizza Hut, turning up on a bike means you can’t afford a car." This tidbit reminds me of a similar anecdote (that my experience aligns with) re: the modern upper class that wearing a $2k Rolex or driving a $70k BMW i…

The Toyota Land Cruiser has been a popular car in certain upper-class circles. At $87k it's fairly expensive, but it doesn't look expensive.

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#95

Post by jrm4 »

corndoge wrote: post #38
sbarre wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rich people never want to acknowledge their luck, because it doesn't fit the "self-made" narrative. edit: to please the pedants, I should have said "many rich people", as to not imply "all". My fault.

Cynical but doesn't match my experience, plenty of rich people acknowledge luck

I bet there's a selection thing going on there. Most people, not being rich, aren't around rich people -- and so the rich people they "see" are exactly the type to not acknowledge luck, Trump perhaps being an extreme here.

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#97

Post by theonemind »

helen___keller wrote: post #77

Wouldn’t the best advice simply be to avoid unproductive signaling and be authentic when possible? It’s one thing to signal by wearing nice clothes to a company outing where you make an impression on the person who can materially affect your future income. It’s another thing to consider every aspect of your life in the lens of “what would the wealthy do?” I really have no interest in allowing others to make decisions…

Transparent counter-signalling by claiming not to care about signalling. Careful, I don't think you have the status to pull it off. /s

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#98

Post by Nemi »

gus_massa wrote: post #56

> If a chimpanzee views a person perform a series of superfluous actions, along with one single necessary action, in order to obtain a piece of food, the chimpanzee will skip the superfluous action, and perform only the necessary one. > In contrast, children will copy every single action, including the unnecessary ones. I watched the video, but I'm unconvinced. They tell the kid the box is " magic ". Children know th…

I agree. The nature of our verbal communication is that they were implying to the children that this is a game and that they must copy each step. In contrast, had they said “your goal is to get the gummy bear. Do only those things necessary to get the treat” it would have gone much differently.

Even by not using ANY words and only having then children watch a person and then leaving them alone with the contraption would have gone differently. Some would likely have “played the game” because that is what we teach children. But at least some would have likely just gone for the treat.

In any case, it is an interesting thing to ponder!

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#99

Post by shakow »

steveBK123 wrote: post #64
331c8c71 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>$2k Rolex I thought the cheapest Rolex is substantially more expensive. Am I wrong?

Fair point. My numbers are probably off on everything now. Before the 2020s era inflation you could definitely pick up a mens one used for $2k, like a Datejust model for example. Likewise a $70k car is neither particularly rare or exotic now with how much the average car price has been pushed up by big trucks and EVs.

> Likewise a $70k car is neither particularly rare or exotic

Just for the sake of nitpicking, but going back to the BMW example, you could get a well-optioned Z4 in this range, which I would argue is rather exotic and will make heads turn, if not very expensive.

Re: Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal

#100

Post by jrm4 »

B8MGHCBekDuRi wrote: post #35
TrackerFF wrote: post #27

Maybe a bit OT: The other day I read an interview with a local guy in his 20s that struck gold with crypto, he'd invest something like $20k, and turned it into $40M. He basically went all in on one alt-coin before the marked exploded late last year, and the coin went up 2000x. When asked about it, he of course came up with a narrative that this wasn't just dumb luck. He had had worked hard for those $20k, and he had…

> Can you imagine if some newspaper interviewed a recent lottery winner [...] But to the ignorant, it all sounds very impressive the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect described by Crichton comes to mind here. It is quite potent when media talk about crypto and usually involves evident logical fallacies that are not dissimilar to Orwellian double-speak. Like the idea that cash is freedom so crypto supporters also support no ca…

Really hard to underestimate how bad and old the doublespeak is.

You ever thought about how a credit card is a debt card?

Whereas, it's the debit card that actually spends your credits?

Post reply on HN