More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market • Hacker News Board

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#231

Post by FooBarBizBazz » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:11 PM UTC

lifestyleguru wrote: post #114

epolanski wrote: post #9

I remember a controversial scamming figure in Italy that made millions by selling lucky numbers for lotteries or exploiting people's stupidity to part them with their life savings. Her motto was "idiots _have_ to be scammed". While this figure was morally and ethically deplorable, it always made me think how her motto essentially implied that there was an element of pure natural selection happening and she saw hersel…

> Her motto was "idiots _have_ to be scammed". So all Americans in context of health insurance? All Italians in context of their byzantine bureaucracy and taxation system? All Europeans in context of social and retirement systems? All developed world in context of housing market? It turned into dog eat dog "eat the sucker" attitude. On top of the hierarchy we got really nasty predators, they look at YOU and see an id…

Moreover, when this kind of attitude prevails, there are costs to the society at large. In a low-trust society, everyone needs to invest in walls around their house-compounds, and to avoid going out at night. You need to keep your wits about you to avoid scams and pickpockets -- mental energy that might otherwise go to other purposes. These small costs then compound across the whole of the society: There is less economic growth, there is less technological development. More individual wealth is required to maintain the same overall quality of life. Would you rather be a middle class person in 2024 or a medieval king? In those societies you're, at best, more like the medieval king. It's not as good.

The solution to these kinds of game theoretic issues is strong social norms, and punishment for violation. If this woman is scamming people, she needs to face consequences -- ideally within the official legal system, but perhaps also informally.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#232

Post by stonedge » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:13 PM UTC

iknowSFR wrote: post #224

siltcakes wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they also drinking tons of soda? I can’t believe how much I used to drink. I don’t touch any drink with sugar (other than lactose/latte) nowadays. It’s so disgusting, don’t know how I ever did it in the first place.

Broad brushstrokes incoming and pure speculation but I wrote it out anyway… Today’s youth are more proactive with their identities these days than we were. We were and remain reactive with our identities. That preference influences what triggers the dopamine hits needed for life. The drugs of a reactive identity culture are sugar, alcohol, narcotics, work, anything that’s a trope in movies made by boomers. These drug…

> Today’s youth are more proactive with their identities these days than we were.

I wanted to echo this and say that I believe younger people create a "symphony" with their identity; picking and choosing from various sub-cultures to create a unique combination. Flexible, morphing.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#233

Post by rcpt » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:14 PM UTC

iknowSFR wrote: post #224

siltcakes wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they also drinking tons of soda? I can’t believe how much I used to drink. I don’t touch any drink with sugar (other than lactose/latte) nowadays. It’s so disgusting, don’t know how I ever did it in the first place.

Broad brushstrokes incoming and pure speculation but I wrote it out anyway… Today’s youth are more proactive with their identities these days than we were. We were and remain reactive with our identities. That preference influences what triggers the dopamine hits needed for life. The drugs of a reactive identity culture are sugar, alcohol, narcotics, work, anything that’s a trope in movies made by boomers. These drug…

Gen Z uses a lot more steroids which tracks with your analysis.

But also I think you're falling for sample bias. The ones who don't have a billion followers are overweight and generally less healthy than previous generations.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#234

Post by soulofmischief » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

jaco6 wrote: post #37

jshpool wrote: post #5

Lot of people are becoming more knowledgable and skillful. But purpose is the missing ingredient. Without purpose or a motivator in life people end up getting trapped in mindless rituals. It keeps the reward circuitry in the brain from decaying.

Child rearing is a possible solution—it is our evolutionary “purpose” to reproduce, after all, and most people in the developed world today aren’t doing it.

Doesn't this seem like a tautological purpose? Our purpose is to create a new generation of beings who question their own purpose?

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#235

Post by mistrial9 » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:20 PM UTC

gadflyinyoureye wrote: post #226

another_poster wrote: post #211

Most people have a gambler’s mindset about the stock market: > […G]ambling in financial markets often goes undetected […] because individuals confuse their actions [i.e., speculating] with investing. The typical person speculates on the market — buying low during their working years, and hopefully selling high during their retired years.

That’s because that’s all we can do. Buffet is an actual investor. His stock position allows him to remake a company if necessary. My stock position might buy some chickie bugs at Wendy’s. I have no direct control over any company I “own” and my voting position and the position of all retail investors is functionally nil.

not a lawyer here but I suspect that exercising rights as a shareholder takes some legal education and some networking.. you are right that the DEFAULT stance is what is presented.. but somehow I dont think this the whole possible story in 2024

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#236

Post by mminer237 » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:23 PM UTC

intended wrote: post #229

jondwillis wrote: post #205

At this point I’m just watching a slightly younger cohort of men repeat all of my worst digital addiction mistakes like getting inserted into the online video game -> toxic online behavior pipeline (or worse, fascism), ideologies (Musk), crypto and options gambling (thanks Reddit a la 2013 for all of the crypto communities and WSB) too much computer (ouch, my neck, arms and back.) I’m not doing particularly well, esp…

Wsb was 2013??

It existed at least: https://web.archive.org/web/20121218025312/http://www.reddit...

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#237

Post by tokioyoyo » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:23 PM UTC

silverquiet wrote: post #200

tokioyoyo wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit off-topic, but it’s interesting how this became the de-facto answer to any question related to “meaning of life” in the last 2-3 years in HN/tech circles. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but it’s a bit weird. Like I’m sure everyone knows that? If a person isn’t having a child in their 30s, they either can’t because of multitude of different reasons, or they decided they don’t want to. Disclaimer: I’m as pro-kid as…

I'd have to guess the demographics of HN lean rather Millennial, and I don't have to guess that they lean heavily male. I think it's probably just a collective biological clock thing; it's something I've started to feel myself. Intellectually, I want kids less than ever (so it's for the best I never had any), but emotionally, I do sort of understand the urge.

Could be! I share the same emotional feeling as well, but the ones telling others to have kids, already have them. They keep going above and beyond trying to portray the idea of “everything is amazing when you have a kid!”, when it’s objectively not true. It’s just a bit off-putting when you have all the information readily available and try to push an ideology to a circle that’s commonly known as skeptics. Anyone who has close girl friends in their late 20s/30s have heard the issues they’re facing and why they’re not having kids either. But then, bunch of seemingly smart people, just keep yelling “just have children!!!” looks a bit dumb. And from the guy’s side we have different sets of problems.

A bit personal, but throughout my life, I’ve met more dead-beat fathers than caring ones. So, I’m incredibly jaded when it comes to giving advice. Statistically, I wouldn’t try to change one’s mind to have a child, because I’d feel bad for the kid if things go south.

Once again, I’m still pro-having kids, but I don’t get why it became such a major discourse compared to 2010s.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#238

Post by selimthegrim » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:24 PM UTC

h4ch1 wrote: post #213

warkdarrior wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always give away the kid, the whole adoption industry is here to help. In some countries you can even sell your kids, but it is frowned upon in many Western societies. Finally, fostering is the trial run you are looking for.

Wish I had the rep to downvote a comment, > you can always give away the kid a child is not a goddamn pet or a commodity that you can just give away > In some countries you can even sell your kids, but it is frowned upon in many Western societies A common country where that happens is Pakistan/Afghanistan where young boys are sold to be prostitutes. I am GLAD it's frowned upon as it should be everywhere in the modern…

The other thing that happens is that they (both genders) are sold into begging rings

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#239

Post by b800h » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:25 PM UTC

iknowSFR wrote: post #224

siltcakes wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they also drinking tons of soda? I can’t believe how much I used to drink. I don’t touch any drink with sugar (other than lactose/latte) nowadays. It’s so disgusting, don’t know how I ever did it in the first place.

Broad brushstrokes incoming and pure speculation but I wrote it out anyway… Today’s youth are more proactive with their identities these days than we were. We were and remain reactive with our identities. That preference influences what triggers the dopamine hits needed for life. The drugs of a reactive identity culture are sugar, alcohol, narcotics, work, anything that’s a trope in movies made by boomers. These drug…

What a brilliant observation.

Has anything else been written online about proactive vs. reactive identities, and particularly - how this has changed historically. Could it have been the case that prior to television, generations (for example "The Greatest Generation") grew up with a proactive identity culture, due to having a more proactively social culture?

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#240

Post by dan-robertson » Tue, Dec 24, 2024, 5:28 PM UTC

another_poster wrote: post #211

Most people have a gambler’s mindset about the stock market: > […G]ambling in financial markets often goes undetected […] because individuals confuse their actions [i.e., speculating] with investing. The typical person speculates on the market — buying low during their working years, and hopefully selling high during their retired years.

I don’t think this is the right analysis. One should generally expect a positive return over time from investing in equities: you are giving up money now and taking on risk, and you are compensated for it by the return on investment. The word ‘speculating’ is generally referring to a different kind of activity from the kind of investing a typical person gets through paying into a pension. I don’t want to make claims about what typical people are doing with brokerage accounts, and the structure of brokerages seems to have changed enough that it’s perhaps harder to describe long term trends or the lives of ‘typical’ customers.