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How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

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Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#41

Post by tw1010 »

ryandrake wrote: post #7

Ive always truly believed that gullibility was one of humanity’s biggest, most exploitable weaknesses, if not the biggest. You can fake your way into almost anything with confidence and basic acting. I’m reminded of the folk wisdom about simply holding a clipboard and acting like you belong can get you into private areas of 90% of companies. All the fraud people fall for, all the scams, obvious phishing, you’d think…

Trust-by-default is a consequence of the fact that enough people don't exploit norms, don't lie. We're in no need of turning off the gene (assuming it's nature, not nurture, which I'm not so sure about), since if society found itself in a lie-dominant state (as opposed to truth-dominant), we wouldn't be as trusting anymore. (It's self-correcting already, without any need for manual override.)

It'd also argue that it's a lot harder for the majority of people to convincingly act and lie than you think (especially when they don't feel desperate or have grown up in a safe environment that doesn't force them to learn how to behave contrary to their natural instincts).

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#42

Post by brenschluss »

chaostheory wrote: post #26
aesto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trust-by-default is pretty much the definition of social capital, which is thought to be incredibly important for a functioning society. Basically, it's more efficient to trust people and be exploited once in a while, than to never trust anyone, which would lead to high transaction costs for any social interaction. Short intro by Robert Putnam, the big cheese in the field: http://robertdputnam.com/bowling-alone/socia…

> Trust-by-default is pretty much the definition of social capital, which is thought to be incredibly important for a functioning society. Not all societies are the same. Trust by default is a luxury in many parts of the world. Typically the rule of law is just non-existent in these places.

Which places, and is this personal experience?

Every place around the world I've been to has been incredibly hospitable -- and the more besieged by war, or poverty, the more hospitable places tend to be. More so than your average street in the USA.

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#43

Post by Joe-Z »

verbatim wrote: post #34
gricardo99 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly likely that he has not been completely duped yet. That has the effect of quickly realigning your trust meter.

That may realign it, but it doesn't mean you're good at it. Maybe Joe-Z fails in the other direction, writes off tons of people as untrustworthy (incorrectly) for no reason, and hasn't realized it.

>writing off tons of people as untrustwothy...

I think that‘s what most people do. I‘m actually waiting for me to be „completely duped“ one time and deliberately exposing myself to this risk. However, my experience so far has lead me to believe: Most people are really nice and the few that aren‘t shouldn‘t really be tainting your interactions with others that you just happen to not know yet.

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#44

Post by roymurdock »

StrictDabbler wrote: post #31
acconrad wrote: post #6

My wife and I went to Paris for our anniversary and we didn't realize until we were there that it was Fashion Week. I am genuinely not surprised at all that this guy made it to the top. Streetwear has become so ironic because the lines have blurred between haute culture/high fashion and bargain basement designs that you genuinely can't tell what is $800 (Balenciaga Triple S https://www.balenciaga.com/us/triple-s-shoe…

That Balenciaga is an absurd shoe. It's the running shoe equivalent of a Gaudi hotel facade. It looks like it belongs on the cover of Yellow Submarine. The lines are crazy. The curves of the sole section near the front of the shoe are in a complicated dialogue with the curves near the back. Check those tangents, man. If you've ever used something like illustrator, imagine where the spline controls would be. Then try…

> 90% of everything is shit

in regulated/safety-critical industries such as automotive, aerospace & defense, medical, etc. where people's lives are at stake, 99% of end-user facing products are fantastic and you generally get what you pay for, with some minimum level of quality and manufacturer warranty

in high fashion, the politics are so vicious because the stakes are so low. and it has stirred emotions here because nobody likes to feel left out, and that's basically the point of high fashion, to appoint a select group of people as "cool" because they "get it" and can afford hot labels

I wouldn't say that this extends all through the art world - good design is key to a lot of functional and utility aspects of engineering or creating anything new. but nobody is going to be playing pick up basketball in their $800 balenciaga, or expecting any level of functionality/comfort from them besides fitting on their feet

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#45

Post by brenschluss »

ryandrake wrote: post #7

Ive always truly believed that gullibility was one of humanity’s biggest, most exploitable weaknesses, if not the biggest. You can fake your way into almost anything with confidence and basic acting. I’m reminded of the folk wisdom about simply holding a clipboard and acting like you belong can get you into private areas of 90% of companies. All the fraud people fall for, all the scams, obvious phishing, you’d think…

I don't trust your anecdote; I think you just made it up, since you have not presented any proof.

I think you are trying to prove a point by making up stories.

Therefore I distrust your conclusions and arguments, not only because I disagree with them, but because I distrust you.

(I'm testing out turning off my trust-by-default gene ;)

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#46

Post by Joe-Z »

ionforce wrote: post #19
Joe-Z wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The other day I was carrying 2 relatively heavy boxes (furniture; I just moved into a new place) and suddenly a guy comes up to me and asks if he can help me. At first I was kind of flabbergasted, but after a second I was like 'he's just trying to be nice' and gave him one of the boxes. We carried it until we arrived at my apartment complex and had a nice chat along the way. When we arrived we exchanged numb…

> Maybe I'm an outlier there but I'm pretty quick in determining if someone is being sincere or just sweet-talking me to get what he/she wants. Personally, I feel the same way. But it's illogical. What data do you have that you're good at ferreting the genuine from the not?

I of course don‘t have data to back this up. But, I think, a lot of it comes down to how you approach these sorts of situations. According to my experience, how open you are - and stay - in kind-of-sketchy situations will get you a long way in dealing with people that others might have just written off as „someone trying to scam me“.

That actually reminded me of a really cool poscast episode I listened to this week:

https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/long-distance

(A guy trying to get to the bottom of an indian call-center scam, leading to all sorts of pleasant interactions along the way)

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#47

Post by cortesoft »

ryandrake wrote: post #7

Ive always truly believed that gullibility was one of humanity’s biggest, most exploitable weaknesses, if not the biggest. You can fake your way into almost anything with confidence and basic acting. I’m reminded of the folk wisdom about simply holding a clipboard and acting like you belong can get you into private areas of 90% of companies. All the fraud people fall for, all the scams, obvious phishing, you’d think…

> you’d think we’d start educating people to be more skeptical/cynical but it keeps happening

I don't know... yes, these things happen all the time, but as an individual, 99.9% of your interactions are going to be mostly honest, and there IS a cost to being skeptical about every interaction (anger other people who you doubt, takes time, can lead you to miss opportunities, etc)

Are you so sure that the extra protection you get from being skeptical is worth all those little costs that add up?

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#48

Post by lotsofpulp »

brenschluss wrote: post #42
chaostheory wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trust-by-default is pretty much the definition of social capital, which is thought to be incredibly important for a functioning society. Not all societies are the same. Trust by default is a luxury in many parts of the world. Typically the rule of law is just non-existent in these places.

Which places, and is this personal experience? Every place around the world I've been to has been incredibly hospitable -- and the more besieged by war, or poverty, the more hospitable places tend to be. More so than your average street in the USA.

As a foreigner, the types of interactions you have may not be reflective of interactions that require high trust. Such as selling/purchasing land, dealing with police and crimes, paying for large amounts of labor such as in construction or ordering large amounts of supplies.

It's much easier to do business in the US/Europe, you can just put your credit card number in and stuff shows up at your door step, even if it's in the tens of thousands or more in value. Obviously, you can get taken in the modernized countries too, but much less and if you do there are legal avenues.

In poorer countries, you have to be a lot more careful who you deal with and need a lot of references because people have experiences getting burned too often. Any place that openly gives bribes to cops (I know tons, usually they are in poverty) also illustrate low trust. Hospitality doesn't display the deep trust that makes doing business in places like the US/Europe easier.

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#50

Post by kreeWall »

Joe-Z wrote: post #18
aesto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trust-by-default is pretty much the definition of social capital, which is thought to be incredibly important for a functioning society. Basically, it's more efficient to trust people and be exploited once in a while, than to never trust anyone, which would lead to high transaction costs for any social interaction. Short intro by Robert Putnam, the big cheese in the field: http://robertdputnam.com/bowling-alone/socia…

Exactly. The other day I was carrying 2 relatively heavy boxes (furniture; I just moved into a new place) and suddenly a guy comes up to me and asks if he can help me. At first I was kind of flabbergasted, but after a second I was like 'he's just trying to be nice' and gave him one of the boxes. We carried it until we arrived at my apartment complex and had a nice chat along the way. When we arrived we exchanged numb…

This is an interesting point, and is basically the premise of online dating apps/websites - it's better to trust that things have a chance of working out rather than not trying.
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