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I am more curious to find out what is the basis of the article’s assertion that Paris Hilton’s “dumb blond heiress” was a brilliant high level strategy and not

I am more curious to find out what is the basis of the article’s assertion that Paris Hilton’s “dumb blond heiress” was a brilliant high level strategy and not exactly what it appeared to be? If I were a fortunate wealthy narcissist of middling intelligence I too would rather prefer for the masses to interpret my frequent displays of abject stupidity as a high-wire ploy of a stable genius.

colatkinson 4y ago
I think it's ultimately because the "dumb blonde heiress" thing has made her oodles and oodles of money. She's far from a "started from nothing story," given her family. But that said, she's incredibly successful beyond that, at least in part because of her ability to generate free publicity at will. Her perfume line brings in $2.5 billion in revenue. Her retail businesses bring in $4 billion in sales. That's on top of her music career, and being paid six figure sums just to show up at parties. If she'd been sensible, I'm sure she could've gone off to Harvard or Wharton, taken over the family empire, and be sitting next to her vaguely-abusive father in a board meeting right now. But being a coked-out ditz is apparently very, very profitable, and has given her decades of staying power in the public consciousness. That said, I do think it's harder to say if it was a conscious strategy (i.e. a publicity team sitting around saying, "Ok Paris, tonight you're going to throw a drink at Bill from TMZ, we've already set it up") vs the fact that one can be both a complete mess in some aspects of your life and well put-together in others. If the checks keep rolling in, and you're still having fun with it, I'm sure that "all publicity is good publicity" becomes a pretty reassuring mantra over time. Our obsession with Spectacle does the rest. To draw a parallel: look at Elon Musk. He's built a personal brand around posting cringy memes on Twitter. Is he a moron? Possibly, in at least some senses. Has his public persona made him buckets of money and contributed to Tesla having a PE ratio that confuses the hell out of analysts? Undoubtedly. One's just targeted at twenty-something women who watch too much reality TV, and the other at twenty-something men who read too much Reddit.
- Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
  > But that said, she's incredibly successful beyond that, at least in part because of her ability to generate free publicity at will. For an honest comparison you should compare what she did vs. the alternative scenario of her disappearing from public life after the porn video, not working a single day further at all and just scouting for a good money manager (her family know plenty for sure..both for real estate business and for capital markets at large). Compounding money in the markets is very powerful, even if her carrer made her just as much money, she still had to do some work. EDIT: I realize people need a purpose and so not working at all could be very bad for you.
saghm 4y ago
I think the author addresses this near the end of the article: > A common critique of shameless people is questioning their intelligence. But one of the most bizarre aspects here is it doesn’t actually matter how aware that person is of what they’re doing. The concept of a “genius mastermind” is itself outdated, because it assumes that someone needs to be in control. The shameless person is simply a host for a set of ideas, which, like any virus, will continue to propagate as long as there are willing hosts to receive it. The point isn't so much that she did or didn't fit that description, but that her actions were effective regardless of the intentions, so criticizing them on those grounds doesn't really do much to combat them.
- VincentEvans 4y ago
  “Her actions were effective regardless of the intentions” - effective in what way? Stupid actions effective to reinforce others perception that the actor is stupid? I don’t get it. I must have missed the “ta-da” moment at the end, the big reveal, the one where the shocked naysayers are left humbled by the surprise transformation…
- ackbar03 4y ago
  I think it does though, because the whole point of the article is shamelessness as a strategy, which means it has to be done knowingly to achieve the purpose. If she was unaware of it but reached the end result, good for her, but it doesn't support that she herself was knowingly following the strategy, which makes a big difference
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - mikkergp 4y ago
    Why is this a big difference? I might argue that the idea that you need to intellectualize a strategy may be one of the points dismissed by the article.. What does 'knowingly' mean in your case. A lot of high-performance work is about tuning your intuition, not your intellect. From the article: "The concept of a “genius mastermind” is itself outdated, because it assumes that someone needs to be in control. "
dexwiz 4y ago
The second hand narrative I’ve heard is that she was emotionally abused as a child and went away to boarding school. She used the dumb blonde persona to escape criticism both from the public and her own family as she maneuvered into the life she wanted.
koonsolo 4y ago
All of her classmates and close friends seem to say she is very intelligent. There is just a very strong sentiment (including yours) that she has to be stupid. She gave you and everybody else what you wanted. I was very relieved to find out she was intelligent, because that was my theory from the start. I could not believe someone that stupid would make it that far.
- VincentEvans 4y ago
  Make it how far? End up in a reality show, joining the likes of Honey Booboo? Born into money with all of the trappings, benefits, opportunities it presents and likely eventually to be able to steer her life taking advantage of her situation? This reply seems to paint me in a negative light asserting that I “expected her to be stupid”, which you will have to take my word for, I had no such expectations. Whatever impressions of her I have acquired were born of an observation of her public persona. I am not Paris Hilton watcher, I haven’t heard of her since the show, and have made no notice of some feat of intelligence associated with her name. I would welcome some evidence of her alleged high intelligence, but I guess I’ll look it up myself if such exists.

colatkinson 4y ago

I think it's ultimately because the "dumb blonde heiress" thing has made her oodles and oodles of money. She's far from a "started from nothing story," given her family. But that said, she's incredibly successful beyond that, at least in part because of her ability to generate free publicity at will. Her perfume line brings in $2.5 billion in revenue. Her retail businesses bring in $4 billion in sales. That's on top of her music career, and being paid six figure sums just to show up at parties. If she'd been sensible, I'm sure she could've gone off to Harvard or Wharton, taken over the family empire, and be sitting next to her vaguely-abusive father in a board meeting right now. But being a coked-out ditz is apparently very, very profitable, and has given her decades of staying power in the public consciousness. That said, I do think it's harder to say if it was a conscious strategy (i.e. a publicity team sitting around saying, "Ok Paris, tonight you're going to throw a drink at Bill from TMZ, we've already set it up") vs the fact that one can be both a complete mess in some aspects of your life and well put-together in others. If the checks keep rolling in, and you're still having fun with it, I'm sure that "all publicity is good publicity" becomes a pretty reassuring mantra over time. Our obsession with Spectacle does the rest. To draw a parallel: look at Elon Musk. He's built a personal brand around posting cringy memes on Twitter. Is he a moron? Possibly, in at least some senses. Has his public persona made him buckets of money and contributed to Tesla having a PE ratio that confuses the hell out of analysts? Undoubtedly. One's just targeted at twenty-something women who watch too much reality TV, and the other at twenty-something men who read too much Reddit.

Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
> But that said, she's incredibly successful beyond that, at least in part because of her ability to generate free publicity at will. For an honest comparison you should compare what she did vs. the alternative scenario of her disappearing from public life after the porn video, not working a single day further at all and just scouting for a good money manager (her family know plenty for sure..both for real estate business and for capital markets at large). Compounding money in the markets is very powerful, even if her carrer made her just as much money, she still had to do some work. EDIT: I realize people need a purpose and so not working at all could be very bad for you.

saghm 4y ago

I think the author addresses this near the end of the article: > A common critique of shameless people is questioning their intelligence. But one of the most bizarre aspects here is it doesn’t actually matter how aware that person is of what they’re doing. The concept of a “genius mastermind” is itself outdated, because it assumes that someone needs to be in control. The shameless person is simply a host for a set of ideas, which, like any virus, will continue to propagate as long as there are willing hosts to receive it. The point isn't so much that she did or didn't fit that description, but that her actions were effective regardless of the intentions, so criticizing them on those grounds doesn't really do much to combat them.

VincentEvans 4y ago
“Her actions were effective regardless of the intentions” - effective in what way? Stupid actions effective to reinforce others perception that the actor is stupid? I don’t get it. I must have missed the “ta-da” moment at the end, the big reveal, the one where the shocked naysayers are left humbled by the surprise transformation…
ackbar03 4y ago
I think it does though, because the whole point of the article is shamelessness as a strategy, which means it has to be done knowingly to achieve the purpose. If she was unaware of it but reached the end result, good for her, but it doesn't support that she herself was knowingly following the strategy, which makes a big difference
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- mikkergp 4y ago
  Why is this a big difference? I might argue that the idea that you need to intellectualize a strategy may be one of the points dismissed by the article.. What does 'knowingly' mean in your case. A lot of high-performance work is about tuning your intuition, not your intellect. From the article: "The concept of a “genius mastermind” is itself outdated, because it assumes that someone needs to be in control. "

dexwiz 4y ago

The second hand narrative I’ve heard is that she was emotionally abused as a child and went away to boarding school. She used the dumb blonde persona to escape criticism both from the public and her own family as she maneuvered into the life she wanted.

koonsolo 4y ago

All of her classmates and close friends seem to say she is very intelligent. There is just a very strong sentiment (including yours) that she has to be stupid. She gave you and everybody else what you wanted. I was very relieved to find out she was intelligent, because that was my theory from the start. I could not believe someone that stupid would make it that far.

VincentEvans 4y ago
Make it how far? End up in a reality show, joining the likes of Honey Booboo? Born into money with all of the trappings, benefits, opportunities it presents and likely eventually to be able to steer her life taking advantage of her situation? This reply seems to paint me in a negative light asserting that I “expected her to be stupid”, which you will have to take my word for, I had no such expectations. Whatever impressions of her I have acquired were born of an observation of her public persona. I am not Paris Hilton watcher, I haven’t heard of her since the show, and have made no notice of some feat of intelligence associated with her name. I would welcome some evidence of her alleged high intelligence, but I guess I’ll look it up myself if such exists.