4 ms·

Man I can't wait for this wave of "VC as pseudo social media philosopher" to end.

by temp1928384 8y ago

arisAlexis 8y ago
who can philosophize better about wealth than the people that became successful and wealthy? The other kind of social media philosophers is the Socialist type that were never successful but blame the system and everything else
- djmips 8y ago
  Being successful does not make you uniquely qualified to assess how to be successful. In my experience most people will rationalize success stemming from their own superiority and minimize the role of luck and standing.
  - alexgmcm 8y ago
    Or it could just be like Skinner's superstitious pigeons - it was mostly chance and now they attribute it to some series of events that really have nothing to do with it.
    - stumbellina 8y ago
      What? He had superstitious pigeons?? I know his daughter killed her self so apparently the skinner box wasn’t as seamless as planned..
      - alexgmcm 8y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Superstition_in_the_pigeon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Superstition_in_...
- watwut 8y ago
  > who can philosophize better about wealth than the people that became successful and wealthy? The other kind of social media philosophers is the Socialist type that were never successful but blame the system and everything else Sociologist who studied average outcomes, successes and failures. Also, an independent person not personally invested in making oneself sound as awesome. Also, someone not having personal interest in changing how other people act for own benefit. Obvious example: If 10 people takes same risk and 9 of them ends up super poor and 1 super rich, then the risk taking philosophy wrote by the 1 will be significantly different then the one that takes into account also those where risk part happened.
  - arisAlexis 8y ago
    if luck does not explain 100% of the variance on average more successful people will have better skills than those who are not. It is a pretty big bias to think in terms of 1 or 10 or units
    - consz 8y ago
      As someone who personally makes high seven figures and who's met dozens of people of 9, 10-figure net worth -- I think it's ridiculous that anyone thinks becoming phenomenally wealthy is not overwhelmingly determined by luck. None of the rich people I've met have any notable characteristics that explain their "success" -- although certainly, some have convinced themselves it was due to some quality of theirs that they could control (and not just that, for example, they were lucky to get into the right team, at the right firm, at the right time, etc.). I assume people who believe wealth and success of individuals can be explained by predictable qualities or behaviors of that person have simply never met a rich person in their life.
      - arisAlexis 8y ago
        how can you be sure that you and me are not biased since the definition of bias is to belong to the losing group? (you are upper quadrant for sure but still)
- smadge 8y ago
  If one person rolls a die and gets a six and another person rolls the same die and gets a one the person who rolled the six will claim it was the way they rolled the die that led to their success.
  - arisAlexis 8y ago
    apply big numbers and the majority will be people that had less luck unless luck is 100% of the variance which is not
hnuser355 8y ago
An impression I have of USian culture is that one is only “allowed” to spend time on pursuits such as essaying, the humanities, etc. without mockery after one has made a fortune

Man I can't wait for this wave of "VC as pseudo social media philosopher" to end.

who can philosophize better about wealth than the people that became successful and wealthy? The other kind of social media philosophers is the Socialist type that were never successful but blame the system and everything else

djmips 8y ago
Being successful does not make you uniquely qualified to assess how to be successful. In my experience most people will rationalize success stemming from their own superiority and minimize the role of luck and standing.
- alexgmcm 8y ago
  Or it could just be like Skinner's superstitious pigeons - it was mostly chance and now they attribute it to some series of events that really have nothing to do with it.
  - stumbellina 8y ago
    What? He had superstitious pigeons?? I know his daughter killed her self so apparently the skinner box wasn’t as seamless as planned..
    - alexgmcm 8y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Superstition_in_the_pigeon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Superstition_in_...
watwut 8y ago
> who can philosophize better about wealth than the people that became successful and wealthy? The other kind of social media philosophers is the Socialist type that were never successful but blame the system and everything else Sociologist who studied average outcomes, successes and failures. Also, an independent person not personally invested in making oneself sound as awesome. Also, someone not having personal interest in changing how other people act for own benefit. Obvious example: If 10 people takes same risk and 9 of them ends up super poor and 1 super rich, then the risk taking philosophy wrote by the 1 will be significantly different then the one that takes into account also those where risk part happened.
- arisAlexis 8y ago
  if luck does not explain 100% of the variance on average more successful people will have better skills than those who are not. It is a pretty big bias to think in terms of 1 or 10 or units
  - consz 8y ago
    As someone who personally makes high seven figures and who's met dozens of people of 9, 10-figure net worth -- I think it's ridiculous that anyone thinks becoming phenomenally wealthy is not overwhelmingly determined by luck. None of the rich people I've met have any notable characteristics that explain their "success" -- although certainly, some have convinced themselves it was due to some quality of theirs that they could control (and not just that, for example, they were lucky to get into the right team, at the right firm, at the right time, etc.). I assume people who believe wealth and success of individuals can be explained by predictable qualities or behaviors of that person have simply never met a rich person in their life.
    - arisAlexis 8y ago
      how can you be sure that you and me are not biased since the definition of bias is to belong to the losing group? (you are upper quadrant for sure but still)
smadge 8y ago
If one person rolls a die and gets a six and another person rolls the same die and gets a one the person who rolled the six will claim it was the way they rolled the die that led to their success.
- arisAlexis 8y ago
  apply big numbers and the majority will be people that had less luck unless luck is 100% of the variance which is not

hnuser355 8y ago

An impression I have of USian culture is that one is only “allowed” to spend time on pursuits such as essaying, the humanities, etc. without mockery after one has made a fortune