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

robkhenderson.substack.com

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

#611
post #562
post #44

The one that always bugs me is when rich, successful people tell others to follow their heart or passion. It's easy to follow your heart once you're already rich. The other one is that rich people don't think about money, which is bullshit. It's all they think about, even if they don't show it.

> The other one is that rich people don't think about money, which is bullshit. It's all they think about, even if they don't show it. Nonsense; almost the defining characteristic of being rich is that you don't need to think about money; if you need some it's there.

IMO, you fell into the trap. At least IME, people with money are always thinking about making more money. Obviously they aren't thinking about how to pay for food, but they are thinking about what to invest in, how their investments are doing, what else can they buy with the money that will make more money.

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

#612
post #88
post #44

The one that always bugs me is when rich, successful people tell others to follow their heart or passion. It's easy to follow your heart once you're already rich. The other one is that rich people don't think about money, which is bullshit. It's all they think about, even if they don't show it.

Rich people are more dependent on their wealth than poor people. It's funny to think about. A poor person depends on a diverse array of skills, relationships and resources. A rich person depends on their account balance. They focus on that, basically in exclusion of all else. It makes the way they see and behave really different. It explains "wealthy miser" syndrome.

> diverse array of skills, relationships and resources

IDK. The people I know who I would consider rich money wise also have the above in spades.

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

#613

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I have rings in both my ears and sleeve tattoos on both arms. What does that say about me?

That you are a barista at Starbucks or someone with self image issues. On a more serious note such people appear to me as conformists. Everyone has tattoos today. They buy them like burgers at McDonalds. In the past you'd eaen them in navy, army or prison. It said something about the person - it doesn't say anything about you now. Except perhaps that you want to seen in certain way without living it. E.g. look like a…

I like that it means both that I have self-image issues and that I'm a conformist.

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

#614

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We shouldn't be. Barring dominance by some fundamentalist group, be it religious, cultural, or political, humans have had piercings and tattoos. I like that fact that it is no longer countercultural to adopt these basic human expressions.

Tattoos are frowned upon in most cultures in the world. It's not just "fundamentalists" (whatever that means). And who cares about "human expression?" If you need to "express" yourself, write a book or something where the rest of us don't have to look at it. America would be a lot better if people thought less about how to “express” themselves, and more about how to keep the social environment around them tidy and or…

It's true, I'm expressing support for the Yakuza, and helping them tear down the social fabric of western society. That's been the left's plan all along.

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

#615

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Very senior/wealthy people can get away with whatever they want. It's why Zuckerberg can look like a total slob at Facebook (notice he still wore a suit while testifying to Congress though). If a senior executive wore a $200 suit to work, nobody would say a word.

> Zuckerberg can look like a total slob at Facebook Huh, custom tshirts and well fitting jeans counts as "looking like a total slob" now? Fwiw I'd rather work with / for someone that dresses like that over formal any day of the week.

Well, it's only in the context of the radical casualization of menswear since the mid-60s that jeans and a t-shirt can be seen as stylish. When men first started wearing this outfit, it was considered rebellious in part because it was so obviously inappropriate to wear in public. The t-shirt originated as a military undergarment and jeans as mining equipment.

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

#616

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Japanese suits/uniforms are often pretty cheap (and look that way) - thus the low end “recruit suit”. They are tailored, but the level of body-fitting they are would be actively unacceptable in the US. By which I mean, everyone would think you’re gay. On the other hand, Japan is the home of expensive high end recreations of American casual clothes - look up Take Ivy, BEAMS, nice selvedge jeans, etc.

> On the other hand, Japan is the home of expensive high end recreations of American casual clothes - look up Take Ivy, BEAMS, nice selvedge jeans, etc. I remember some acquaintances running a decent side business buying and then selling vintage American clothes back in Japan (shipping or flying back). This was back in the 1990s so I believe it. (it also brought back some fond memories)

When Japanese enthusiasts scoured American thrift stores for the last remaining stock of vintage American denim, it supposedly constituted the largest ever transfer of clothing from the USA to Japan, exceeding even the postwar used clothing charity drives.

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

#617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tattoos are frowned upon in most cultures in the world. It's not just "fundamentalists" (whatever that means). And who cares about "human expression?" If you need to "express" yourself, write a book or something where the rest of us don't have to look at it. America would be a lot better if people thought less about how to “express” themselves, and more about how to keep the social environment around them tidy and or…

It's true, I'm expressing support for the Yakuza, and helping them tear down the social fabric of western society. That's been the left's plan all along.

No post body was provided.

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

#618
post #341

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> repairability narrative that is not much better than, “out of warranty and one accident away from into landfill” I have a couple of old Range Rovers. There are very few things you can't fix with a half-inch spanner and a hammer, and those you can fix with a 7/16th spanner and a bit of sticky tape. They run on propane, so they get cheap tax and can be registered as Low Emission Vehicles, which is pretty hilarious fo…

> They run on propane How does fueling work? Perhaps I just haven't noticed (because I have to reason to), but I have never seen a fueling station advertise propane, outside of tanks for grilling and similar.

Big doughnut-shaped tank in the spare wheel well, bit of plumbing to the front (copper in old installs, plastic on newer ones - my "old" Rangie has plastic pipe because I refurbed it about seven years ago), and a thing like a diving regulator that lets the engine "suck" gas through after boiling it off using engine coolant, and feeds it into the throttle body. More sophisticated ones use solenoid injectors that work alongside the normal petrol injectors and provide a more "direct" flow of fuel and better performance. On my oldschool install there's a stepper motor that adjusts the fuelling based on what it reads from the existing lambda sensors. When you switch to gas, a pair of modules (four cylinders each so a V8 needs two) switch some resistors in series with the petrol injectors so they cannot fire but the ECU still sees continuity, cutting off the petrol, and the gas solenoids switch on allowing propane through.

To fuel up you just go to a filling station with an LPG pump (getting harder to find here unfortunately) and instead of poking the nozzle down the filler neck and holding down a trigger on the filler gun, you plug in a hose with a fitting like a BNC plug the size of your wrist and hold down a button on the pump until you've put enough in. It clicks off when it's full.

No difference in performance (in theory you could adjust it to get more because it's the equivalent of 115RON fuel!) and a bit more fuel consumption, but roughly 2/3 the price of petrol.

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

#619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the point is everyone looks like they’re trying to conform to the dress code. Much better than America, where just when you think it’s hit bottom, people plumb the depths further. (Most recently, by way of hair, tattoos, earrings on men, etc.)

I have rings in both my ears and sleeve tattoos on both arms. What does that say about me?

What I've learned from my girlfriend is that you enjoy having a needle put in you, especially if it's large enough to feel.

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

#620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true, I'm expressing support for the Yakuza, and helping them tear down the social fabric of western society. That's been the left's plan all along.

Quoted post unavailable.

It's good to feel like I'm a part of something larger than myself.
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