5 ms·

> He's probably the one billionaire alive today for which you could not make that case. Is this Stockholm Syndrome?

sharts 10mo ago
Very likely. Billionaires can afford to cultivate a persona for the masses. It’s so odd when the majority actually buy it.
- csallen 10mo ago
  Not everyone can afford to waste energy on angry and envy directed toward private citizens who have literally nothing to do with them
irishcoffee 10mo ago
You ever see Good Will Hunting? The scene where he talks about where he can “just play” and then describes the most talented people in history at what they do. That’s Buffett in his chosen life’s work. Buffett didn’t get, for example, a small loan of a million dollars to start. He’s been working at this longer than probably anyone what will ever read this comment has been alive. He doesn’t care about the money in the sense I feel you’re implying. Nobody is perfect, and holding anyone to that standard sets an impossible threshold. I don’t know how familiar you are with Warren Buffett, but I would encourage you to dig into his Wikipedia page at least, however accurate we think that is these days.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- SecretDreams 10mo ago
  Have you ever read Elon's wiki? Or any other individual rich enough to curate whatever views they choose? Warren buffet did good and he came up with a winning strategy. Momentum was ultimately his friend and what drove his success. When ETFs are great today and their popularity largely because of Warren, I think a lot of what's increasingly becoming obviously wrong with the markets ties back to the original strategy behind ETFs. There's no more self selection or focus on fundamentals. All pensions are now exposed and regular contributors to the markets, so winner and losing picking doesn't really exist in the same way and performance is no longer tied to reality. I dread what that means as populations stagnant since it puts some risk on future pensions and their somewhat ponzi-esque structure. All the pessimistic rants aside - it's insane to refer me to a billionaire's wiki as an attempt to get to know them. I largely look at people based on how they might treat family, friends, strangers, etc. In that regard, I'm mixed.
  - jacquesm 10mo ago
    Elon and Buffet are polar opposites.
    - WalterBright 10mo ago
      Musk at one point was one explosion away from bankruptcy.
      - jacquesm 10mo ago
        I wasn't talking about tech, but about their character.
        WalterBright 10mo ago
        Risk tolerance is a component of character. Musk has put his entire fortune on the line more than once, and more than once was a whisker from bankruptcy. I'm far less of a risk taker than he is, and have consequently not made big scores like Musk.
        jacquesm 10mo ago
        You're also not an asshole, but Musk is.
        WalterBright 10mo ago
        > You're also not an asshole Some disagree with your assessment(!) > but Musk is I'm going to reserve judgement on that because the media lens is pretty distorting. He's not afraid to stand up to bullies, and I've seen that interpreted as assholishness. Steve Jobs also had a reputation as an asshole. A couple of my friends had encounters with him, and I asked is he really an asshole? Both confidently said yes. !!
    - SecretDreams 10mo ago
      But can you infer this from their Wikipedias?
- PostOnce 10mo ago
  Yes he did start with a "small loan of a million dollars"! Buffett started with 1.2 million dollars (105K in 1956) in investments from his family, i.e. his aunt, sister, and father in law. It is very nearly impossible to get rich without starting with a huge chunk of money, Buffett is no exception.
  - irishcoffee 10mo ago
    You should read his whole bio.
    - PostOnce 10mo ago
      Don't get me wrong, I like him, he's a quick wit, it's just not true that he started with nothing, he started with a lot.
      - irishcoffee 10mo ago
        Better late than never, I don’t know if you’ll see this. He started investing well before people started giving him money. Like, decades. Wikipedia page on Buffett: At 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself, and three for his sister Doris Buffett (who also became a philanthropist).[20][21][22] At 15, Warren made more than $175 monthly (equivalent to $3,057 in 2024) delivering Washington Post newspapers. In high school, he invested in a business owned by his father and bought a 40-acre farm worked by a tenant farmer.[23] He bought the land when he was 14 years old with $1,200 (equivalent to $21,434 in 2024) of his savings.[23] By the time he graduated from college, Buffett had amassed $9,800 in savings (equivalent to $129,511 in 2024).[18]
  - WalterBright 10mo ago
    Gates/Allen started Microsoft with $5000. Jobs started Apple by selling his VW bug.
    - PostOnce 10mo ago
      Jobs is probably a good example here, and obviously there aren't many Jobses in the world. As far as I know, he started with nothing really. Bill Gates however was born rich and had powerful, well-connected parents and grandparents. Obviously Bill did better with those tools than most people would, but would it have been possible if he started as an average kid with an average amount of money? He wouldn't have gone to a prestigious school with nice computers (or any computers), or have been able to fail at traf-o-data and keep going, for example. His mom was on the board of a charity which included the CEO of IBM, which is how IBM got involved with Microsoft. Microsoft wouldn't be Microsoft without that deal, or without Mary Gates, or the money that facilitates all these kinds of things. The older I get, the more I believe that "you can start with nothing and make it" is essentially a lie told to the working class to keep them from cannibalizing the rich (via taxation).

sharts 10mo ago

Very likely. Billionaires can afford to cultivate a persona for the masses. It’s so odd when the majority actually buy it.

csallen 10mo ago
Not everyone can afford to waste energy on angry and envy directed toward private citizens who have literally nothing to do with them

irishcoffee 10mo ago

You ever see Good Will Hunting? The scene where he talks about where he can “just play” and then describes the most talented people in history at what they do. That’s Buffett in his chosen life’s work. Buffett didn’t get, for example, a small loan of a million dollars to start. He’s been working at this longer than probably anyone what will ever read this comment has been alive. He doesn’t care about the money in the sense I feel you’re implying. Nobody is perfect, and holding anyone to that standard sets an impossible threshold. I don’t know how familiar you are with Warren Buffett, but I would encourage you to dig into his Wikipedia page at least, however accurate we think that is these days.

deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
SecretDreams 10mo ago
Have you ever read Elon's wiki? Or any other individual rich enough to curate whatever views they choose? Warren buffet did good and he came up with a winning strategy. Momentum was ultimately his friend and what drove his success. When ETFs are great today and their popularity largely because of Warren, I think a lot of what's increasingly becoming obviously wrong with the markets ties back to the original strategy behind ETFs. There's no more self selection or focus on fundamentals. All pensions are now exposed and regular contributors to the markets, so winner and losing picking doesn't really exist in the same way and performance is no longer tied to reality. I dread what that means as populations stagnant since it puts some risk on future pensions and their somewhat ponzi-esque structure. All the pessimistic rants aside - it's insane to refer me to a billionaire's wiki as an attempt to get to know them. I largely look at people based on how they might treat family, friends, strangers, etc. In that regard, I'm mixed.
- jacquesm 10mo ago
  Elon and Buffet are polar opposites.
  - WalterBright 10mo ago
    Musk at one point was one explosion away from bankruptcy.
    - jacquesm 10mo ago
      I wasn't talking about tech, but about their character.
      - WalterBright 10mo ago
        Risk tolerance is a component of character. Musk has put his entire fortune on the line more than once, and more than once was a whisker from bankruptcy. I'm far less of a risk taker than he is, and have consequently not made big scores like Musk.
        jacquesm 10mo ago
        You're also not an asshole, but Musk is.
        WalterBright 10mo ago
        > You're also not an asshole Some disagree with your assessment(!) > but Musk is I'm going to reserve judgement on that because the media lens is pretty distorting. He's not afraid to stand up to bullies, and I've seen that interpreted as assholishness. Steve Jobs also had a reputation as an asshole. A couple of my friends had encounters with him, and I asked is he really an asshole? Both confidently said yes. !!
  - SecretDreams 10mo ago
    But can you infer this from their Wikipedias?
PostOnce 10mo ago
Yes he did start with a "small loan of a million dollars"! Buffett started with 1.2 million dollars (105K in 1956) in investments from his family, i.e. his aunt, sister, and father in law. It is very nearly impossible to get rich without starting with a huge chunk of money, Buffett is no exception.
- irishcoffee 10mo ago
  You should read his whole bio.
  - PostOnce 10mo ago
    Don't get me wrong, I like him, he's a quick wit, it's just not true that he started with nothing, he started with a lot.
    - irishcoffee 10mo ago
      Better late than never, I don’t know if you’ll see this. He started investing well before people started giving him money. Like, decades. Wikipedia page on Buffett: At 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself, and three for his sister Doris Buffett (who also became a philanthropist).[20][21][22] At 15, Warren made more than $175 monthly (equivalent to $3,057 in 2024) delivering Washington Post newspapers. In high school, he invested in a business owned by his father and bought a 40-acre farm worked by a tenant farmer.[23] He bought the land when he was 14 years old with $1,200 (equivalent to $21,434 in 2024) of his savings.[23] By the time he graduated from college, Buffett had amassed $9,800 in savings (equivalent to $129,511 in 2024).[18]
- WalterBright 10mo ago
  Gates/Allen started Microsoft with $5000. Jobs started Apple by selling his VW bug.
  - PostOnce 10mo ago
    Jobs is probably a good example here, and obviously there aren't many Jobses in the world. As far as I know, he started with nothing really. Bill Gates however was born rich and had powerful, well-connected parents and grandparents. Obviously Bill did better with those tools than most people would, but would it have been possible if he started as an average kid with an average amount of money? He wouldn't have gone to a prestigious school with nice computers (or any computers), or have been able to fail at traf-o-data and keep going, for example. His mom was on the board of a charity which included the CEO of IBM, which is how IBM got involved with Microsoft. Microsoft wouldn't be Microsoft without that deal, or without Mary Gates, or the money that facilitates all these kinds of things. The older I get, the more I believe that "you can start with nothing and make it" is essentially a lie told to the working class to keep them from cannibalizing the rich (via taxation).