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How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

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Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#211

Post by zdbrandon »

anm89 wrote: post #124
marcus_holmes wrote: post #5

Seen so much of this bullshit while travelling around SE Asia. I swear 90% of nomads are dropshipping/life coaches running ponzi schemes, and the other 10% are geeks like me who lucked into remote-friendly coding gigs. Sprinkled with some truly fascinating folks who genuinely discovered some new and interesting way of making this work for them.

Yeah, my running joke while living in Thailand was that it was a circular pyramid scheme, the yoga teachers are buying life coaching, the life coaches are all learning to become drop shippers, and the drop shippers are all getting training to become yoga teachers. They just buy and sell services from each other in a circle trying to grow their own thing until they give up and go home.

That’s a microcosm of how a real economy works, actually.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#212

Post by anm89 »

peteretep wrote: post #144
anm89 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Kohub is the coliving on a thai island right? I've been really interested to check that out but never ended up making it there.

My email is in my profile. I'd be really interested to jump on a chat with you for a few minutes and hear about your experience if you are open to it. Get in touch if you are open to talking.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#213

Post by MacsHeadroom »

jariel wrote: post #73
MacsHeadroom wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Literally nothing existentially difficult" flies in the face of the unprecedented increase in suicide among people coming of age which started precisely around 2008.

Your comment 'flies in the face' of the fact that suicide has not materially changed that much in 50 years [1] (it's up a couple of points since 1980) - and the fact that rates of suicide are currently, literally almost 1/2 what they were before WW2. [2] Once again proving my point: flippant assertions that 'the world is hard' when actual data suggests just the opposite. Taking your example, suicide, we're very mater…

Your sources clearly show Suicide skyrocketing since the 90s ended.

More importantly, my claim was the change in suicide "among people coming of age." Suicide of minors has never been higher, ever.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#214

Post by v64 »

ajmadesc wrote: post #176
v64 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you'll quickly realize people are literally gambling with their life savings Gambling, yes. But the stock market is not a ponzi scheme.

It kind of is. 1. Debt accumulates 2. Return on investment grows faster than the economy 3. Capital starts to strangle economy through rent causing political tensions. 4. Suffering 5. Economic reset through war, revolution, plague.

If you're willing to dilute the meaning of "ponzi scheme" so broadly, then yes, the economy is a ponzi scheme.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#215

Post by jmcqk6 »

anm89 wrote: post #124
marcus_holmes wrote: post #5

Seen so much of this bullshit while travelling around SE Asia. I swear 90% of nomads are dropshipping/life coaches running ponzi schemes, and the other 10% are geeks like me who lucked into remote-friendly coding gigs. Sprinkled with some truly fascinating folks who genuinely discovered some new and interesting way of making this work for them.

Yeah, my running joke while living in Thailand was that it was a circular pyramid scheme, the yoga teachers are buying life coaching, the life coaches are all learning to become drop shippers, and the drop shippers are all getting training to become yoga teachers. They just buy and sell services from each other in a circle trying to grow their own thing until they give up and go home.

I'm just a layperson, but it seems like you've described an economy.

Especially when you realize that

>buy and sell services from each other in a circle

isn't true at all.

I don't know anything dropshipping - the name certain implies something scammy, but our economy is full of things like that.

It's a weird aspect of society - which lies are we all going to agree to accept - and since each person answers those questions differently, it leads to a lot of tension.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#216

Post by rjyoungling »

zimpenfish wrote: post #175
goatinaboat wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say the combo of "work ethic, risk tolerance, and perseverance against ridiculous odds" involved in Tesla/Apple/etc, is orders of magnitude more commonly found than actual Tesla/Apple/etc level success... Agreed. For every tech millionaire there are a thousand guys who are just as smart and worked just as hard and it didn’t work out for whatever reason. Maybe their timing was off by a mere 6 months for example. T…

> Maybe their timing was off by a mere 6 months for example. First job I had (1995) was "Classified Ads on the Internet" - back then it was expensive to host a website and hugely expensive to add CGI (I think Demon wanted maybe £300 a month for that?) and the money ran out after a year. If they'd been able to keep it funded for, say, another 2-3 years, until home internet was more accessible, I think they'd have been…

Webvan vs. Instacart. So many dead startups that are brought back because they were just too soon.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#218

Post by closeparen »

andrepd wrote: post #198
rorykoehler wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want that capital though. All it's doing is ossifying the power structures that are the cause of the major problems we are facing. It's a trap.

Indeed. Who are these people, why do they get to decide what gets built and what do people labour on? I want democratisation of capital.

Sure, democratize capital. Then it will be decided by a few thousand voters in swing states, with “who are you and why should you get to decide” problems that put VC to shame.

A lot of VC capital is democratized: an elected official appointed a pension fund manager who decided to allocate some funds to a particular VC firm.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#219

Post by saiya-jin »

yakireev wrote: post #196
saiya-jin wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's naive and unexperienced view on life values and true achievements. These days, money isn't impressive. What you actually do in your life is. For some of it, some amount of money is important, and if you have plenty its easier to achieve. But that's about it. I live in place swarming with rich folks, both old rich and new rich, while being neither. Most of them live such boring lives it would be sad if I cared…

> I live in place swarming with rich folks, both old rich and new rich, while being neither. Most of them live such boring lives it would be sad if I cared for them. I was half-expecting the next sentence to be "Sign up for my webinar and I'll teach you how to make your life as fun as mine!" Seriously though, what do you mean by "adventurous life"?

Low-cost backpacking in 3rd world (obviously not during covid), hiking, alpinism, climbing, via ferratas, ski touring/alipinism, skiing, paragliding, diving... plus some more usual sports/activities like biking, running, swimming.

It doesn't have to be that many (which is hard to manage with 100% employment), even 1 would suffice if done properly. I have a kid now, second possibly on the way, so even without covid some of this is/will be massively scaled down. But I still want to pick up new ones - right now its precision target shooting and archery.

Its more about mindset - if you feel you have a great life, money is just a tool to keep it. For that you don't need terribly much, heck some full time climbers live in camper vans for the whole time. On the other hand if you don't enjoy your life, money won't make it magically better, sometimes the opposite.

And no I don't sell some stupid coaching :) Those are just my own experiences

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#220

Post by alasdair_ »

yakireev wrote: post #196
saiya-jin wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's naive and unexperienced view on life values and true achievements. These days, money isn't impressive. What you actually do in your life is. For some of it, some amount of money is important, and if you have plenty its easier to achieve. But that's about it. I live in place swarming with rich folks, both old rich and new rich, while being neither. Most of them live such boring lives it would be sad if I cared…

> I live in place swarming with rich folks, both old rich and new rich, while being neither. Most of them live such boring lives it would be sad if I cared for them. I was half-expecting the next sentence to be "Sign up for my webinar and I'll teach you how to make your life as fun as mine!" Seriously though, what do you mean by "adventurous life"?

> Seriously though, what do you mean by "adventurous life"?

If the post you were replying to wasn’t composed while skydiving above shark-infested waters with a supermodel by their side, I’m going to be terribly disappointed.

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