Comment by 0xbadcafebee

> The whole essay is about how financial markets are not some "mysterious unknown" and are instead predictable systems that are masked in a layer of bullshit that you can lean into and take advantage of.

If someone goes out of their way to tell you about a thing in detail, emphasizing how it's not a mysterious unknown, the conceit is that they think that you thought it was a mysterious unknown, and they are removing the blinders from your poor ignorant eyes.

> As a non-finance person, understanding "why" obviously terrible ideas get investment helps me understand how the world works.

> If we replaced the humans in the financial system with APIs, there would be inputs (pitch deck, founder persona, whatever) that can cleverly lead to an intended solution (raising capital, starting a company) in the same way that I could find a vulnerability on RuneScape or Eve Online

I'm sorry, but you really don't understand how the world works.

> approaching the world in the "hacker mindset" is about observing and manipulating these systems

The hacker mindset is curiosity and discovery, not observing and manipulating. It's one thing to study a thing; it's another to become it.