Self Help Con? https://loopvids.s3.amazonaws.com/Sept10_Post.mp4 There is a common idea that a lot of self help is a con. The evidence seems to support it. People read tons of self help books but never change. But suppose we treat this idea with a bit more scientific objectivity? One thing that’s critical in […]
Harvard Scam Theory
Lecture I watched this really cool lecture the other day called, “The Harvard Scam.” This wasn’t actually about how Harvard is running some kind of scam. But it was about how most things are not how they seem. And most things are not wholly organic. Most things are a combination of […]
Broke Samurais and Wealthy Romans
PT Barnum PT Barnum famously said there is a sucker born every minute. But what’s commonly not said is a couple of very important corollaries to that statement. The first is that suckers are suckers because they are willing to believe something that is too good to be true. Now, why would […]
Stock Market Scams And The Never Ending Desire For Easy Money
Here’s the story of one of the greatest, most ingenious stock market scams I’ve ever heard about. You like money, right? But making money is tough. It takes a long time to accumulate riches. But that doesn’t keep most of us from dreaming about someday striking it rich without much effort. (I’m sure you know […]
The Easy Money Modeling Agency Con
I used to work as a model scout, many many years ago. It was a big con, and I really didn’t figure that until I’d worked there for a while. But here’s how the game went. They’d send out the “scouts” out into the world. Our job was to grab anybody who looked like they […]
The Legal Art Of The Con And How To Resist It
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of the “long con.” Movies about grifters, or guys who plan these long and elaborate schemes to extract money out of people. Some people, when they steal money, just show up with some guns and demand the cash, then get the heck out of dodge. But highly skilled […]