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

How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

callmenish.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 265 posts

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#141

Post by neurostimulant »

nickhodge wrote: post #67

Easier. Step 1. Invent Bitcoin.

Back then when bitcoin is still in its infancy, there is not much to do with bitcoin in your wallet apart from gifting each other some coins (bitcoin faucet was pretty generous back then). So people on bitcointalk forum often openly running some ponzi scheme and a lot of people would join just for the heck of it. There was nothing shady about it as the organizer would openly admit its a ponzi scheme (something along "hey, I'm running a new ponzi scheme here. If you're interested here is the url").

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#142

Post by bsanr2 »

alisonkisk wrote: post #16
dvt wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's a bad example I don't think it's a bad example, because if you spend some time on that subreddit, you'll quickly realize people are literally gambling with their life savings. In no small part due to disillusionment and cynicism with the current economic realities -- we can no longer work at a stable company, marry a pretty wife, have a couple of kids, retire 40 years later, and live off of a plump 401k.

Come on. WSB is people goofing with real or fake money for fun and lulz. It's not for desperate people trying to survive.

I dropped ~$1000 of my last savings into options earlier this year because "DIS is going to print." Actually, it's because I was unemployed and staring down the barrel of a rent payment that that money would not be able to cover. I figure I lose the money and not make rent, just as if I'd done nothing, or it makes the money back and then some, and I'm able to cover another month. If I'd sold about a week into holding, I'd have made ~50%. Then our Fed Chairman made the totally sane and not completely unprecedented decision to pump $2 trillion dollars into the economy. The underlying stock shot up and my options values evaporated overnight, amidst the issuing corporation announcing that all of its revenue streams would be effectively dead for the foreseeable future.

Just sensible market behavior.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#143

Post by throwawaysea »

just-juan-post wrote: post #46
coliveira wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla was built by a billionaire. There was little to no risk involved.

Tesla was built by someone else and was purchased by a young man who grew up rich and insisted that as part of the transaction that his title be founder.

Grew up rich? I don't think that's accurate. I know a lot of Musk-hating articles have been played up, particularly on socialist Twitter circles, alleging that Musk inherited family wealth from an emerald mine. But this is simply not true. The emerald mine story is dubious and vague, and it's only real mention is from Ashlee Vance's book on Musk, and her source is Elon's father. Elon and his mother fled an allegedly abusive relationship with the father, and had nothing in terms of wealth. It's why Elon had to work odd jobs after moving (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/03/odd-jobs-elon-musk-had-when-...).

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#144

Post by peteretep »

anm89 wrote: post #125
peteretep wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd say 95% of digital nomads are just online marketers It’s strange ‘cuz I’ve been working in digital nomad hotspots for years and have met very very few people like that. Lots of translators, programmers, and then a complete mishmash of other people, but very few people selling courses, and the ones who _were_ selling courses generally nothing to do with being a digital nomad

What utopia have you found? I couldn't stop meeting these people on the road.

Last year I was in Kohub, Hub Hoi An, Outpost Penestanan, and some time at Hubud. This year, due to Covid, just Kohub.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#145

Post by peteretep »

seppin wrote: post #112
moltar wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I’ve been nomading for ten years. I haven’t met a single person who was not legit doing something of value. The closest I came to one was an online poker player in Chiang Mai back in 2010. Maybe we just hang out in the “right” circles? It’s probably just like in real life. I have never met anyone offering me a generic (non nomad) Ponzi scheme. But I sure had several legit investment opportunities thru my c…

> I’ve been nomading for ten years. The most i've ever been able to do was half a year. How can you choose to be without a real home that long?

> How can you choose to be without a real home that long?

Depends what you mean by "real home" I guess. I have a tiny apartment in Bangkok, where we would normally spend ~ 8 weeks a year in total a year, and then we rent ad-hoc or stay with family the rest

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#146

Post by bsanr2 »

refurb wrote: post #98
nish1500 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trading on the stock market (by and large) doesn't create value. If someone makes a killing, it's because someone lost it. You hear about those who make money - because it's the story you 'want' to hear. People don't understand how money comes from value created, in the long run. People think they can game the system. Everyone feels they are not a part of the average.

Trading creates liquidity, which supports a healthy capital market which companies can access for capital.

(I mean so does heavy taxation of capital ~hoarders~ holders, to be redistributed among the country's labor base, who will then tend to spend it immediately on goods or personal investment, but we don't talk about that.

OR

The point of liquidity is to get people doing things, but the status quo today seems more like giant firms trading above our heads to manage the risk of rent-seeking on an increasingly precariously-positioned consumer class.)

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#147

Post by icapulet2 »

throwawaysea wrote: post #143
just-juan-post wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla was built by someone else and was purchased by a young man who grew up rich and insisted that as part of the transaction that his title be founder.

Grew up rich? I don't think that's accurate. I know a lot of Musk-hating articles have been played up, particularly on socialist Twitter circles, alleging that Musk inherited family wealth from an emerald mine. But this is simply not true. The emerald mine story is dubious and vague, and it's only real mention is from Ashlee Vance's book on Musk, and her source is Elon's father. Elon and his mother fled an allegedly…

Elon later got thousands of dollars from his dad to start Zip2 so it's not like he ran away without a safety net. He did what so many other trust fund babies have done: He slummed. Stop contributing to the Horatio Algers narrative that Musk spins, among hundreds of other yarns,

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#148

Post by numpad0 »

dvt wrote: post #13
an_opabinia wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For a classic example, just look at /r/wallstreetbets -- young people are frustrated because there's no end to this tunnel That's a bad example. By many measures retail investors have outperformed institutional investors since March. The simple reason is that options have a built in exit strategy, the thing that's missing when most people lose in scams - including Ponzi schemes! On the flip side, why then do they o…

> That's a bad example I don't think it's a bad example, because if you spend some time on that subreddit, you'll quickly realize people are literally gambling with their life savings. In no small part due to disillusionment and cynicism with the current economic realities -- we can no longer work at a stable company, marry a pretty wife, have a couple of kids, retire 40 years later, and live off of a plump 401k.

> can no longer work at a stable company

Been wondering lately, why is a position in a stable company also generally considered stable?

I mean, it’s a scalable system designed to survive, running on cash flow. Say load reduces, or flow reduces, wouldn’t it be only sane to immediately cut down on worker nodes? Why keep, except as strategic reserves?

I suppose because strategic planning up top used to be harder in the past so reserves tended to be large?

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#149

Post by coliveira »

throwawaysea wrote: post #143
just-juan-post wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla was built by someone else and was purchased by a young man who grew up rich and insisted that as part of the transaction that his title be founder.

Grew up rich? I don't think that's accurate. I know a lot of Musk-hating articles have been played up, particularly on socialist Twitter circles, alleging that Musk inherited family wealth from an emerald mine. But this is simply not true. The emerald mine story is dubious and vague, and it's only real mention is from Ashlee Vance's book on Musk, and her source is Elon's father. Elon and his mother fled an allegedly…

It is well know that Elon's father is a successful owner of an engineering company in South Africa. If something was missing in his youth it was not money. Of course, his father being rich didn't immediately translate into personal wealth for him, that's why these people like to claim that they are "self made".

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#150

Post by bryanrasmussen »

coldtea wrote: post #33
dvt wrote: post #6

This article is fantastic. I think "get rich quick" schemes are so much worse when it comes to my generation and beyond (millennials/gen-z). People have been endlessly screwed over: graduated college during the 2008 economic bust, lived with parents until their 30s, fired/laid off during the 2020 pandemic -- so I fundamentally understand the mirage of Instagram fame and endless sacks of money for doing basically noth…

> How does one break out when everyone's taking glamorous selfies in Thailand but I'm working in a dingy apartment trying to build the next big app? Isn't the idea of building the "next big app" itself based on the same kind of get-rich-quick mindset those schemes are exploiting? Only except for the "nomad lifestyle" or "selling courses", etc, it's supposed to happen by coding in a dingy apartment. But it's equally u…

>Isn't the idea of building the "next big app" itself based on the same kind of get-rich-quick mindset those schemes are exploiting?

Perhaps, depending on the app, a ponzi scheme is based on wanting to get rich by taking advantage of people's gullibility and non-understanding of how ponzi schemes work.

I suppose some apps could have that kind of disregard for how users of the app are harmed, but I think in most cases people building apps also think they are helping their users in some way. Ponzi schemers know they're only helping themselves.

Post reply on HN