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Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

cyclingtips.com

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Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#41

Post by simonh »

jbm wrote: post #15

I loved this story but take issue with the framing. Dishonest reinvention of oneself is not a modern phenomena; my gut feeling is that this was a common occurrence. You have classic fictional books about the premise (IE the Count of Monte Cristo) which at least makes it sound like people used to feel the idea was plausible. Rather, it strikes me that the ability to determine the lies is the real story here. 30 years…

There are many example of fantasists and con artists creating fake back stories for themselves. Casanova and Cagliostro are among the most famous examples. Affecting fake noble titles was a favourite ploy.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#42

Post by arpinum »

ehvatum wrote: post #29
arpinum wrote: post #24

Well worth the read, but it left me with so many questions. How much is self-deception? The conclusion of the article makes me think he believes some of his own lies, as if he starting lying so much he doesn't remember what is reality. The other characters in the story are equally fascinating. Did the retired general know Clark was a grifter, but was happy to collect a pay check sitting on the board? Can you succeed…

> How can we help our friends and family avoid being victims if these scammers have such strong powers of persuasion? Take your credulous friends to an AA meeting, now and then. It’s basically a workshop against every kind of deception.

For some reason I thought AA would be a great MLM recruitment area. Do they discourage recruitment for jobs and religion?

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#43

Post by DiggyJohnson »

arpinum wrote: post #42
ehvatum wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can we help our friends and family avoid being victims if these scammers have such strong powers of persuasion? Take your credulous friends to an AA meeting, now and then. It’s basically a workshop against every kind of deception.

For some reason I thought AA would be a great MLM recruitment area. Do they discourage recruitment for jobs and religion?

They are an de facto faith-based group, so they probably don’t want evangelizing on their doorstep.

If someone showed up trying to peddle their MLM scheme, I expect that they would be asked not to bring their work to the meeting or please don’t come back.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#45

Post by mindcrime »

saila wrote: post #44

KOM = king of the mountain. Apparently it's an award you get when you beat the current best time for a given segment in Strava. The article doesn't expand the abbreviation anywhere which is extremely annoying.

I'm a big fan of always expanding acronyms when used for the first time myself, so I hear ya on that point. That said, I find it slightly more excusable here because the source publication (cyclingtips.com) is targeted to a specific audience, and most members of that audience (as opposed to the public at large) would generally know what a Strava KOM is. I'd find this a more egregious issue if this were in the Washington Post or another "general audience" publication.

It's kinda like how many articles meant for the "standard HN audience" (to the extent that one can speak of such a thing) might use TCP or DNS without expanding them. Not an issue when one of "us" is reading the article, but might trip up a less technically inclined person.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#46

Post by freedomben »

bombcar wrote: post #28
gilgoomesh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Family members don’t call out narcissists as a polite way of moving past it. They don’t want to fight every 5 minutes. I’m sorry that gave you the wrong impression.

One of the duties of parents is to call out bullshit privately for their children so they can also learn the distinction.

I don't necessarily disagree, but as a parent you have to be careful what you say to your kids because (particularly when young) they are prone to repeat it to the worst people at the worst possible time.

If my sister was constantly making up fantastic stories and I told my kids privately that she was lying, I'd be better off saying it to her face because when my kids tell her (or someone else in the family) what I said, it will be a disaster and the kids will end up in the middle of it. At least a direct confrontation keeps the kids out of it. But, it better be worth tearing the family apart because that is what would happen.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#47

Post by sonofhans »

geocrasher wrote: post #17

Reading this story, as long as it is, was quite interesting to me. I've been on the other end of the lies. As a young person, ranging from middle school to early 20's, I was repeatedly duped by people who lied to me over and over again, making up fantastic stories that were tailored to my interests and gullibility. They used these lies to gain my friendship, to control my actions to get what they wanted, or to in one…

Wow, that’s a hell of a story; I’m sorry. Since you’re in a moment of realization: the word for what your aunt did is “gaslighting,” and it can cause lasting trauma. You’re right that, like other forms of abuse, when done as a child it makes one more susceptible to it as an adult.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#48

Post by pessimizer »

eli wrote: post #30
ehvatum wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can we help our friends and family avoid being victims if these scammers have such strong powers of persuasion? Take your credulous friends to an AA meeting, now and then. It’s basically a workshop against every kind of deception.

Rubbernecking an AA meeting feels wrong

Magnificent Obsession, the late Jim Nayder's WBEZ show, is basically an extended AA/NA style share.

This may be an archive of some sort, but I can't see it because I'm not an Apple customer.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/magnificent-obsession/...

edit: https://soundcloud.com/magnificent-obsession

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#49

Post by stavros »

sonofhans wrote: post #47
geocrasher wrote: post #17

Reading this story, as long as it is, was quite interesting to me. I've been on the other end of the lies. As a young person, ranging from middle school to early 20's, I was repeatedly duped by people who lied to me over and over again, making up fantastic stories that were tailored to my interests and gullibility. They used these lies to gain my friendship, to control my actions to get what they wanted, or to in one…

Wow, that’s a hell of a story; I’m sorry. Since you’re in a moment of realization: the word for what your aunt did is “gaslighting,” and it can cause lasting trauma. You’re right that, like other forms of abuse, when done as a child it makes one more susceptible to it as an adult.

Gaslighting refers very specifically to presenting a false narrative to cause someone to doubt their perception. His aunt didn't try to make him doubt his own senses, she was just lying.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#50

Post by notacoward »

cyberpanther wrote: post #32

I created a Strava segment in my neighborhood and started to monitor it. I quickly found a couple cheaters and flagged them. Some I could tell some were just bad GPS data, such as riding a bike in a lake. I usually take mine down if the GPS is totally off. However, some were definitely blatant cheating, such as cycling at 80 mph when the road speed is 40mph.

Dealing with fakers is one of the key problems for any service like Strava. I have a set of ten segments that I do around town, and I constantly see bike times posted as running. I think most are accidents (e.g. forgot to change the activity type on their watch) but I've noticed some folks who seem more deliberate about it. BTW it's really not hard to tell. I've even seen a couple of times that were people in their cars, but those were even more obviously accidents.

To their credit, Strava tends to be really good about taking down times once they're flagged. OTOH, one of my own runs got flagged once, and the weird thing is that it wasn't even a particularly good time or anomalous in any way. If somebody wants to erase one of my below-average runs from the record, I think I'm good with that. :D

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