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How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

callmenish.com

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Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#51

Post by jariel »

cbozeman wrote: post #42
jariel wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People have been endlessly screwed over" Heyzeus you have it easier than any generation literally in the history of civilisation. Those just a little bit older than you were fighting in Vietnam, getting beaten up because they were gay, told to live in ghettos and denied jobs by banks and government because they were Black, forbidden from drinking from 'White' fountains. Nothing anyone has faced 'since 2008' is exist…

Good way to minimize someone's pain and life experiences because others have had it bad. If we're going to go full retard..., let's go: "Black people shouldn't complain about slavery because they weren't systematically killed off by the millions like Jews." What a fun game! Look, I can play it too!

Coming of age in 2008 is not 'pain'.

You're literally extending the plight of someone 'graduating in 2008' to 'Jews dying in the holocaust' as though they are on some similar scale which I think helps prove my point.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#52

Post by coldtea »

cbozeman wrote: post #44
coliveira wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Musk had about $140 million when he ~started~ bought (sorry) Tesla. That's a pretty far cry from a billion. On top of that, there was no guarantee that electric cars would ever be embraced, especially by Americans, who traditionally, love ICE muscle cars.

>On top of that, there was no guarantee that electric cars would ever be embraced, especially by Americans, who traditionally, love ICE muscle cars.

Generous subsidies for electrics in the US and other countries helped with that.

Like generous government money funnelled through NASA contracts helped Space X repeat what NASA did in the late 60s/early 70s, slightly improved, 40 years later...

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#53

Post by MacsHeadroom »

cbozeman wrote: post #35
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…

/r/wallstreetbets exists for a different reason, but it got exacerbated by everything you mentioned above. WSB members have come to realize that so-called "financial professionals" by and large have no scrying crystal into the market. WSB got there because of the democratization of knowledge that the Internet has caused. And before you cite some unicorn like Renaissance, that's generating 40% YOY for 20+ years, keep…

Front running is literally scrying and also the reason Robinhood options trading is "free." (Because traders aren't the customer. Front running quant firms are.)

WSB has been duped.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#54

Post by coldtea »

cbozeman wrote: post #36
coldtea wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> How about merely building a business? More people need to be told this. The combination of work ethic, of risk tolerance, and of perseverance against ridiculous odds that is required to build a Tesla, or an Apple, or a Whatever, is extraordinarily rare

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...

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#56

Post by bigbubba »

cbozeman wrote: post #44
coliveira wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Musk had about $140 million when he ~started~ bought (sorry) Tesla. That's a pretty far cry from a billion. On top of that, there was no guarantee that electric cars would ever be embraced, especially by Americans, who traditionally, love ICE muscle cars.

140 million is a lot closer to a billion (7x) than most people are to 140 million (>140x.)

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#57

Post by symlinkk »

cbozeman wrote: post #44
coliveira wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Musk had about $140 million when he ~started~ bought (sorry) Tesla. That's a pretty far cry from a billion. On top of that, there was no guarantee that electric cars would ever be embraced, especially by Americans, who traditionally, love ICE muscle cars.

Once you get past a few million dollars, the extra money is just bargaining power and losing it doesn’t affect your day to day quality of life

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#58

Post by MacsHeadroom »

jariel wrote: post #37
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…

"People have been endlessly screwed over" Heyzeus you have it easier than any generation literally in the history of civilisation. Those just a little bit older than you were fighting in Vietnam, getting beaten up because they were gay, told to live in ghettos and denied jobs by banks and government because they were Black, forbidden from drinking from 'White' fountains. Nothing anyone has faced 'since 2008' is exist…

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

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#59

Post by cbozeman »

jariel wrote: post #51
cbozeman wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good way to minimize someone's pain and life experiences because others have had it bad. If we're going to go full retard..., let's go: "Black people shouldn't complain about slavery because they weren't systematically killed off by the millions like Jews." What a fun game! Look, I can play it too!

Coming of age in 2008 is not 'pain'. You're literally extending the plight of someone 'graduating in 2008' to 'Jews dying in the holocaust' as though they are on some similar scale which I think helps prove my point.

That's because of the way you personally perceive it, while I'm looking at the holistic scenario under which they're living.

The economy is fucked. Its working because its artificially propped up by the Fed and the European Central Bank, to a lesser degree. People know this because the stock market continues to perform well, but individuals are mostly static. Social mobility in the United States is at all-time low and this is well-reported.

Student loan debt has ballooned 2000% over the past 50 years.

Housing prices, be it to buy or rent, have ballooned by 200% in the past 50 years.

Climate change is a serious concern, and absolutely no one can say with any degree of scientific certainty what the long-term (100-300 year range) effects will be.

Now I told you all that... to tell you this.

They're being robbed of hope. People can endure through hardships unimaginable... as long as they have hope. When you take away someone's hope, you take away their life.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#60

Post by sooheon »

an_opabinia wrote: post #9
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…

> 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…

> By many measures retail investors have outperformed institutional investors since March

Source please?

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