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Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

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Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#71

Post by SoftTalker »

jjoonathan wrote: post #34

This is true. It is also true that dispensing this particular advice is self-serving for people in power. In a revolution, things get worse before they get better if they get better. Revolutions come at huge negative expected value. However, appeasing powerful forces can also have hugely negative expected value. Sometimes the calculus makes sense, and when it does, you should hope that people are appropriately discou…

I think it's more self-serving for those in power to encourage a culture of victimhood, where they set themselves up as the saviors.

This is a standard political gambit: create or identify a group of victims, and declare that you will get "payback" for them and make their situation better. Of course you don't, but that's OK, you got their votes and you just recycle and amplify that play next time.

Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#72

Post by anyfoo »

jjoonathan wrote: post #38
wackycat wrote: post #33

Isn't he the guy that tried to build windowless dorms? Anyone who thinks humans should live without natural light is not anyone I am interested in taking advice from. Ref: https://www.archpaper.com/2023/08/university-california-aban...

Affordable housing where all I have to give up is a shitty view? Sign me up!

Obviously (which makes me guess you’re not serious) it’s not about the view but the natural light.

Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#73

Post by mhh__ »

oh_sigh wrote: post #43
profsummergig wrote: post #23

Charlie Munger had great advice in general. And I've learned a lot of good from him. But I will never get over the hypocrisy of owning a quarter of Coca Cola and constantly criticizing Americans for being overweight (he used words like "sloth").

Why? For the most part, people are overweight by choice, not by some unavoidable draw of Coke. Not to mention that they have a ton of zero or low calorie coke options that people could choose.

Perhaps although I really think a lot of food people are eating today will be considered poisonous at some point.

Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#74

Post by qwytw »

homefree wrote: post #10
xboxnolifes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> See Munger's dorm buildings that he pushed upon universities that make prisons look like hotels. I've seen them, and they look preferable to the dorms I actually lived in. Getting a room to myself instead of 2-4 people sharing a (what felt like) 100sqft space.

+1 these looked great, I would have much rather lived in this than the triple with zero privacy I lived in during school.

It could be worse, sure. But those rooms (at least some of them) don't have any windows. Why would you build something like that?

Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#76

Post by watwut »

lordnacho wrote: post #22

He passed away earlier today, which is I guess why this is here. He's got a point, too. To be a victim is to be helpless, and if you can choose to not see yourself that way, you can at least have some power back.

You are victim when somebody else harmed you. To be victim means that somebody else harmed you.

And when people in that situation blame themselves, it is great for abusers but bad for them.

Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#77

Post by nostrademons »

jjoonathan wrote: post #34

This is true. It is also true that dispensing this particular advice is self-serving for people in power. In a revolution, things get worse before they get better if they get better. Revolutions come at huge negative expected value. However, appeasing powerful forces can also have hugely negative expected value. Sometimes the calculus makes sense, and when it does, you should hope that people are appropriately discou…

I always interpreted this statement as "Don't feel like a victim", not "Don't feel like a victim." It's not an exhortation to suck it up and ignore everything wrong with your life, it's an exhortation to go do something about it. If you feel like conditions are honestly bad enough that a revolution is necessary, go revolt, don't sit there on Hacker News or Reddit complaining about how bad conditions are. If Coke is making you fat and being fat is making you unhappy, stop drinking Coke.

This framing isn't self-serving at all; if more people took it, there'd be a lot fewer folks that the rich and powerful could take advantage of, and a lot more power centers.

But curiously, I've noticed that many people who are powerful and ruthless also have a certain respect for people who will put up clear boundaries and take action to not be taken advantage of by them. It's like they're reluctant sociopaths. "As long as stupid and helpless people exist, they will be taken advantage of by someone, so that someone might as well but me." But it's almost like many of them wish there weren't so many stupid and helpless people, and respect folks who go after what they want even if what they want isn't aligned with their own vision.

Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#78

Post by zozbot234 »

tech_ken wrote: post #61

> He thought that every mischance in life was an opportunity to behave well, every mischance in life was an opportunity to learn something, and your duty was not to be submerged in self-pity but to utilize the terrible blow in a constructive fashion. Feeling like a victim is not the same as wallowing in self-pity. Recognizing that you have been victimized in some way could easily be the first step towards taking owne…

> it's probably not healthy in the long-term to pretend like it's "your fault" ... Tak[e] a clear view of the causes of your current circumstances

There's always things in your control and things out of your control, but the notion of "victim" does zilch to clarify which is which. It's a pointless distraction, a snare for the mind.

Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#79

Post by xg15 »

jjoonathan wrote: post #34

This is true. It is also true that dispensing this particular advice is self-serving for people in power. In a revolution, things get worse before they get better if they get better. Revolutions come at huge negative expected value. However, appeasing powerful forces can also have hugely negative expected value. Sometimes the calculus makes sense, and when it does, you should hope that people are appropriately discou…

Ironically, revolutionaries and unionists would perfectly follow Munger's advice here: Don't wallow in misery, organise to change the circumstances that lead to it.

Though I'm pretty certain the he didn't have that kind of change in mind when giving this advice.

Re: Charlie Munger – Feeling Like a Victim Is Perfectly Disastrous

#80

Post by wyldberry »

JohnMakin wrote: post #35
mritchie712 wrote: post #6

I try my best to do this. When I find myself blaming person X for thing Y, it's pretty easy to come up with a way to blame myself instead (e.g. I shouldn't have involved person X in thing Y to begin with). It oddly makes me feel better and move on with a solution instead of stewing over person X's blunders.

Predators take advantage of this quality to gaslight/scam people, FYI.

Certainly, but in every aspect of life, bad people try to take advantage through a variety of tactics. Checking inward for responsibility, accountability, and improvement first is a fine tactic, especially in leadership. Over time, and likely through experience, you'll learn how to sniff out the bad actors.

This is of course, harder to achieve when you have significant emotional investment in the conflict at hand. Detaching and analyzing yourself, and the situation can be a super power here.

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