Alt text: They say you can't argue with results, but what kind of defeatist attitude is that? If you stick with it, you can argue with ANYTHING.
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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Also, the reason we make a big deal about rags-to-riches stories is because they are the exception, not the rule. IOW, the assholes that say sacrifice, work hard, and grind and then you’ll be rewarded with success are full of shit because there are millions of hard workers that will never attain the levels of success these people worship. If everyone who worked hard was rewarded with success there would be nothing to talk about. Those that do strike gold are rare, and far more often than not start with every conceivable advantage to reach that success.
One of my favorite scam stories from Dark Net Diaries is in one of the preambles and talks about an investment "advisor".
You get a call from them about a stock tip about a stock going up, and they are like, you dont have to beleive me, just watch it. It goes up.
They call back the next week with a new stock tip talking about how they were right and made so much money. Again, they dont ask for an investment, just that you watch the stock. It goes up again.
They call back the next week with the ask.
Turns out, they were calling 1000 people, 500 going up, 500 going down. They called everyone that they had a right prediction for the second week. Same process 250 up, 250 down. They again call everyone that they had it right for.
Such a cool scam.
I sometimes get SMSes saying "Hi dad, I have a new number. Please write me on WhatsApp" and I get it, you send to enough people and there will be enough dads and everyone else is like Wtf and moves on. Once the SMS said "Hi mom/dad ..." and I was like c'mon, pick one or lose both
My mums boyfriend fell for that one. I never understood it - why not call them on their "old number" and confirm first that it's no longer valid. And once they ask for money, why not ask them to call you first to confirm?
He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, so I'm not realy surprised he fell for it.
I first read about this story in Fooled by randomness.
What an amazing book! All of Talib's books are just as fantastic!
There's a great episode of Derren Brown with this scam, but related to horse race betting
Hi, I coulnd't find it swith 'advisor' sry 🙏
A guy starts talking about "hard work" and yeah dude you probably did work hard, but you also offhandedly mentioned receiving half of a million dollars from people in your life who "believed in [you]" and I'd like for you to elaborate on that.
I used to see a lot of "I paid off my student loans in 18 months, here's how. I saved all my money and got a director job from my FIL / Mom gave me a house / my spouse paid for it. Just work hard and you can too!" I think I saw one legitimate one of "worked hard as a nurse and paid it off in 7 years" out of 10.
I paid off my student loans by closing my eyes and going "lalalalala I can't hear you" to my account. My story is so inspiring, that I keep getting calls about my loans now.
I paid of my student loans by living in Germany and having middle income parents, thus never actually having borrowed anything.
I've had 3 careers: cook, sysadmin, lawyer. Those three careers pay inversely proportional to how hard it is to do.
Not just speakers, bosses, authors, celebrities, and on and on. To be fair it's hard to see how you couldn't have been successful.
Without books like Fooled by Randomness I'm not sure I would know the difference.
Maybe we need more books about people who did everything right and still failed
Absolutely! Or at least find a way to ensure a balanced view. A ton of books on how Warren Buffet got rich, not sure how many there are on all the people who did exactly what he did and ended up broke.
Buy my debut book on how I wanted to write a bestseller but never ever sold even one copy
🤣🤣🤣
I used to be really big into self help books, and I do think they did help positively shape me in some instances. But I really became disillusioned with them after I continued to cycle.
Turns out I had untreated ADHD, major depressive disorder, and I literally have to work harder than neurotypicals to get anything done.
Is "success" impossible? Nope. But fucking hell I'd need one insane pipeline to get there.
I feel you, I'm ADHD, dyslexic, and my youngest thinks I'm on the spectrum. To compensate I read about 3 books a week....