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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

#61

Post by [deleted] »

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #53
cbozeman wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/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.

[deleted]

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#62

Post by philipkiely »

04148565 wrote: post #49

Legit question: is [1] an instance of this kind of scheme? The guy came out of nowhere boasting how he left his $500K job at amazon and whatnot (first red flag for me) and I've seen his content popup pretty often. 1: https://gumroad.com/l/aws-good-parts

I know Daniel, his work is not a ponzi scheme. Because you asked this question in good faith, I'll give you a summary in good faith:

1. The book you linked is just technical content. It teaches you how to use AWS, not how to sell books about using AWS.

2. Unlike the tongue-in-cheek examples of the original post based on minimal success, this book is written based on years of professional experience as a developer building AWS.

3. His content pops up pretty often because people like it.

Of course, if the book was part of a ponzi scheme, then part of that scheme would be having people like me defend it on HN :)

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#63

Post by peteretep »

fxtentacle wrote: post #10
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.

I'd say 95% of digital nomads are just online marketers who market their own lifestyle so that they can sell a course on how to imitate them. And obviously, their customers will imitate them and sell a course on how to imitate them. And so the cycle continues.

> I'd say 95% of digital nomads are just online marketers

It’s strange ‘cuz I’ve been working in digital nomad hotspots for years and have met very very few people like that. Lots of translators, programmers, and then a complete mishmash of other people, but very few people selling courses, and the ones who _were_ selling courses generally nothing to do with being a digital nomad

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#64

Post by mch82 »

29athrowaway wrote: post #7

Many blog posts pontificating some advice read like: "How to double your money gambling everything on a coin toss" Sure, you can win a coin toss, but unless you can reproduce that experiment consistently it's not a viable advice. And that pretty much to everything... if a process is not better than random chance then it's worthless.

> if a process is not better than random chance then it's worthless

Nice distillation of what many might dismiss as common sense.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#65

Post by solotronics »

coldtea wrote: post #33
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…

> 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…

I write software because I have always liked computers and always spent all my free time figuring out coding, linux, networking, and hacking in general. I don't expect to become the next Zuckerberg and I think that's the equivalent of telling kids they can make it in professional sports. I'm just content making a comfortable living building systems for someone else.

I think I could have made roughly as good of a living being a plumber, an electrician, or a welder! A good electrician around here makes 150k a year. I think the best career advice I heard was pick something you can stand doing and work as hard as you can at it, try and be as good as you can, not measured against someone else but for your self. If you pick a career where expertise matters and it has demand and you work harder and smarter than other people you will do fine.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#66

Post by bleepblorp »

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…

By the beginning of January, the termination of pandemic-related economic supports is expected to put 19 million Americans at risk of homelessness, and make 11% of the US population unable to afford to put food on the table.

The longer-term picture is that the millennials (born 1980 or later) will be the first generation in a very long time to have a lower standard of living than their parents did.

These are the kinds of problems civil unrest is made of.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#68

Post by anonymouse008 »

nish1500 wrote: post #23
an_opabinia wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Trading on the stock market (by and large) doesn't create value. If someone makes a killing, it's because someone lost it. You hear about those who make money - because it's the story you 'want' to hear. People don't understand how money comes from value created, in the long run. People think they can game the system. Everyone feels they are not a part of the average.

Eh, depends on how you defined ‘lost’ a lot of money —

Many of the calls that have hit recently only capped out people’s gains - so yes there was an opportunity cost to that lost, but people didn’t literally lose invested capital. Not as much money as you think has gone into the red this year - even on the way down.

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#69

Post by [deleted] »

cbozeman wrote: post #41
an_opabinia wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Anyway, I get it, those people are stupid. But they made money. They are absolutely not stupid. Everything they're doing is entirely rational. It doesn't seem that way, because clearly you're not in the same circumstances as they are. Neither am I. However, I completely understand it. If you're 22-25, not married, and have far more liabilities than asset, you have no reason not to trade on high margin with an optio…

[deleted]

Re: How to Run a Ponzi Scheme for Tech People

#70

Post by micael_dias »

coliveira wrote: post #48
an_opabinia wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

If you think OTM options are underpriced you're in for a rude awakening. Sure, you can make lots of money with OTMOs, but don't expect to do this regularly.

To be fair he didn't they are. He said they were, which might have been the case in March after the corona crash.
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