6 ms·

Another tactic, for example, is learn what your MBTI is and tailor stories that resonate with your personality.

morelisp 3y ago
I'm sure Palantir is up to just as much shit in its sales division as it is in its actual work, but normal human beings just call changing your communication style and content in response to the listener's reactions "having a conversation".
- anigbrowl 3y ago
  Normal humans don't try to communicate directly with each other through the media.
  - tptacek 3y ago
    Have you ever been on public transit in DC? There are billboards all over the place (or were a decade ago when I was there last) that are clearly sales efforts targeting like 4 people. It's not that weird.
    - csteubs 3y ago
      Extremely accurate. L3Harris pumped so much ad money into the walkways at Dulles I'm surprised they don't have naming rights to a terminal. There was a time not too long ago where you couldn't listen to WTOP without hearing Mitre and ManTech ads with the term "Digital Twin".
      - tptacek 3y ago
        Which like, seems entirely rational? You're a sales team pursuing a deal with an 8-9 figure outcome, of course you would buy a billboard on on the decision maker's commute, it's a rounding error expense.
        csteubs 3y ago
        Completely rational. It makes sense that an area with a highest concentration of defense/government contractors would see a ton of ads geared towards the procurement folks. I grew up in the beltway and interned with some bigger defense contractors in college, just pointing out that it's a phenomenon unique to the DMV area (with some more memorable examples).
    - g8oz 3y ago
      Again, not normal humans.
      - morelisp 3y ago
        Absolutely more normal than someone paranoid they might reveal their MBTI.
    - anigbrowl 3y ago
      I have not, though this doesn't surprise me from seeing how lobbyists buy ads on TV and the net. What I'm saying is that the people paying $$$ to communicate with US Senators or Fortune 500 CEOs like that are operating on a different level from regular people. If you write a letter to the newspaper, you might hope to influence one person, or the general audience of the paper. If you feel so strongly about something that you compose an op-ed, you'll also have to do the work of persuading a feature editor to publish it (although this isn't too hard, if it seems like it fills the news hole). That's a bit less accessible than a letter to the editor. If you're buying full page ads, you're leveraging capital that most people don't have to go outside of regular interpersonal communication channels.
      - tptacek 3y ago
        I think they're operating on the level of people who are working to close deals worth 8-9 figures who know exactly where the 4 decision makers they're targeting are going to be at 8:30AM and 5:30PM. There's not much more to it than that; the only real observation to make here is "these deals are worth a lot of money". I've priced doing billboards just for funsies --- to make a (snarky) point, not to make money. It's not that expensive! Also: how could it be? Look at some of the terrible billboards out there. There are a series of I-55 billboards advertising a single self-published book of poetry. Your original statement was "normal humans don't try to communicate directly with each other through the media". I think you're using a pretty idiosyncratic definition of "normal" there. The phenomenon you're labeling abnormal is I think actually pretty common.
  - morelisp 3y ago
    While creepier, tbh, that is also not actually very unusual for the kinds of contracts Palantir takes on.
  - staticautomatic 3y ago
    B2B companies do this via LinkedIn ads on the regular.
- KittenInABox 3y ago
  The thing is, this isn't responding to listener's reaction. It's determining their personality ahead of time through research and then executing a rhetorical strategy. This kind of focused information-gathering about a target before engagement is also the kind of calculus used by serial killers, btw.
  - morelisp 3y ago
    MBTI is a pseudoscience, not a magic spell to "execute a rhetorical strategy" - or again, as a homo sapiens might call it, "talk to".
    - KittenInABox 3y ago
      I agree it's pseudoscience. But trying to psychologically profile your mark before talking to someone is still weird and creepy. This is far more than seeing if a chick is receptive to being picked up at a bar on a Friday night. It's seeing her at a happy hour a week earlier and then planning for the rest of the week all the strategies to get her to go home with you on Friday, including stalking her social media, following her around to determine her grocery times, etc.
      - jjulius 3y ago
        This is tangential, but I would highly recommend watching a show called The Rehearsal, if you haven't already. It's basically exactly what you just wrote, and wholly unsettling yet brilliant.
nimbius 3y ago
ah meyers briggs, the tabloid astrology of the office worker.
- mywacaday 3y ago
  I know someone who worked in finance HR for approx 20 years. Nearly every time the business hired someone who would have been identified as a poor fit by Meyers Briggs they wouldn't last 12 months.
  - wil421 3y ago
    Given a little time I can pass the test with whatever type they want.
    - bobmaxup 3y ago
      Or just answer randomly. You might get rejected for inconsistent answers, but at least no one will have a "personality profile" for you that they can sell.
  - abawany 3y ago
    I can see how that went: * "ok, extrovert-feely, DJ this party and be quick about it!" * "but the CEO said the quarterly results are due by EOD tomorrow!" * "are you going to oppose the MBTI? you sure aren't a culture fit are you?" edit1: formatting edit2: the point of the above flippant story is that the 'test' marked a person for failure and made their departure a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  - educaysean 3y ago
    Growing up in Asia, I've heard similar anecdotes about blood types. Yeah it sounds stupid in 2024, but back in the 90s, the bloodtype-personality theory was endorsed by politicians and business leaders. Pseudoscience yields anecdotes. Science yields empirical results.
    - abawany 3y ago

I'm sure Palantir is up to just as much shit in its sales division as it is in its actual work, but normal human beings just call changing your communication style and content in response to the listener's reactions "having a conversation".

anigbrowl 3y ago
Normal humans don't try to communicate directly with each other through the media.
- tptacek 3y ago
  Have you ever been on public transit in DC? There are billboards all over the place (or were a decade ago when I was there last) that are clearly sales efforts targeting like 4 people. It's not that weird.
  - csteubs 3y ago
    Extremely accurate. L3Harris pumped so much ad money into the walkways at Dulles I'm surprised they don't have naming rights to a terminal. There was a time not too long ago where you couldn't listen to WTOP without hearing Mitre and ManTech ads with the term "Digital Twin".
    - tptacek 3y ago
      Which like, seems entirely rational? You're a sales team pursuing a deal with an 8-9 figure outcome, of course you would buy a billboard on on the decision maker's commute, it's a rounding error expense.
      - csteubs 3y ago
        Completely rational. It makes sense that an area with a highest concentration of defense/government contractors would see a ton of ads geared towards the procurement folks. I grew up in the beltway and interned with some bigger defense contractors in college, just pointing out that it's a phenomenon unique to the DMV area (with some more memorable examples).
  - g8oz 3y ago
    Again, not normal humans.
    - morelisp 3y ago
      Absolutely more normal than someone paranoid they might reveal their MBTI.
  - anigbrowl 3y ago
    I have not, though this doesn't surprise me from seeing how lobbyists buy ads on TV and the net. What I'm saying is that the people paying $$$ to communicate with US Senators or Fortune 500 CEOs like that are operating on a different level from regular people. If you write a letter to the newspaper, you might hope to influence one person, or the general audience of the paper. If you feel so strongly about something that you compose an op-ed, you'll also have to do the work of persuading a feature editor to publish it (although this isn't too hard, if it seems like it fills the news hole). That's a bit less accessible than a letter to the editor. If you're buying full page ads, you're leveraging capital that most people don't have to go outside of regular interpersonal communication channels.
    - tptacek 3y ago
      I think they're operating on the level of people who are working to close deals worth 8-9 figures who know exactly where the 4 decision makers they're targeting are going to be at 8:30AM and 5:30PM. There's not much more to it than that; the only real observation to make here is "these deals are worth a lot of money". I've priced doing billboards just for funsies --- to make a (snarky) point, not to make money. It's not that expensive! Also: how could it be? Look at some of the terrible billboards out there. There are a series of I-55 billboards advertising a single self-published book of poetry. Your original statement was "normal humans don't try to communicate directly with each other through the media". I think you're using a pretty idiosyncratic definition of "normal" there. The phenomenon you're labeling abnormal is I think actually pretty common.
- morelisp 3y ago
  While creepier, tbh, that is also not actually very unusual for the kinds of contracts Palantir takes on.
- staticautomatic 3y ago
  B2B companies do this via LinkedIn ads on the regular.
KittenInABox 3y ago
The thing is, this isn't responding to listener's reaction. It's determining their personality ahead of time through research and then executing a rhetorical strategy. This kind of focused information-gathering about a target before engagement is also the kind of calculus used by serial killers, btw.
- morelisp 3y ago
  MBTI is a pseudoscience, not a magic spell to "execute a rhetorical strategy" - or again, as a homo sapiens might call it, "talk to".
  - KittenInABox 3y ago
    I agree it's pseudoscience. But trying to psychologically profile your mark before talking to someone is still weird and creepy. This is far more than seeing if a chick is receptive to being picked up at a bar on a Friday night. It's seeing her at a happy hour a week earlier and then planning for the rest of the week all the strategies to get her to go home with you on Friday, including stalking her social media, following her around to determine her grocery times, etc.
    - jjulius 3y ago
      This is tangential, but I would highly recommend watching a show called The Rehearsal, if you haven't already. It's basically exactly what you just wrote, and wholly unsettling yet brilliant.

nimbius 3y ago

ah meyers briggs, the tabloid astrology of the office worker.

mywacaday 3y ago
I know someone who worked in finance HR for approx 20 years. Nearly every time the business hired someone who would have been identified as a poor fit by Meyers Briggs they wouldn't last 12 months.
- wil421 3y ago
  Given a little time I can pass the test with whatever type they want.
  - bobmaxup 3y ago
    Or just answer randomly. You might get rejected for inconsistent answers, but at least no one will have a "personality profile" for you that they can sell.
- abawany 3y ago
  I can see how that went: * "ok, extrovert-feely, DJ this party and be quick about it!" * "but the CEO said the quarterly results are due by EOD tomorrow!" * "are you going to oppose the MBTI? you sure aren't a culture fit are you?" edit1: formatting edit2: the point of the above flippant story is that the 'test' marked a person for failure and made their departure a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- educaysean 3y ago
  Growing up in Asia, I've heard similar anecdotes about blood types. Yeah it sounds stupid in 2024, but back in the 90s, the bloodtype-personality theory was endorsed by politicians and business leaders. Pseudoscience yields anecdotes. Science yields empirical results.
  - abawany 3y ago