Comment by mjd
6 months ago
This reminds me of the observation that you shouldn't buy a car from a dealer who calls himself Honest Ed.
Because honest people just go around being honest, they don't go around broadcasting honesty.
6 months ago
This reminds me of the observation that you shouldn't buy a car from a dealer who calls himself Honest Ed.
Because honest people just go around being honest, they don't go around broadcasting honesty.
Honest Achmed, on the other hand—I hear he issues only the most legitimate of certificates from his Used Cars and Certificates Emporium!
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647959
Yeah discussing honesty seems pointless in real life considering a much lower bar… avoiding writing provable factual lies on the record… is often not even satisfied by large swathes on the population. Who often get away without any noticeable punishment too.
In comparison even a deceiver that says a dozen half truths an hour, without any outright factual lies, seems like a paragon of virtue.
Or how countries with "democratic" in the name invariably are not.
And few countries are as split into two warring camps as the United States of America.
It's kind of funny: the land of the free is seemingly too brainwashed to take a joke.
Where’s the war? I must not be in a conflict zone
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I think that's true of most marketing. The bigger the lie the more shouting has to be done. Peter Thiel mentions that monopoly companies often have the most 'sales' in order to seem competitive. And conversely small competitive companies want to seem large and stable. A bag of lettuce won't have 'healthy' all over the packaging because that's self evident but a bottle or can sugary drink will have all sorts of claims about vitamins there is even a brand called Vitamin Water.
Honey Nut Cheerios Heart Healthy Breakfast Cereal. Vitamin Water. Green Hydrogen. Clean Diesel. Patriot Act.
Double Speak
How did I forget the biggest lie of all time: 'Open' AI
That reminds me of the Guarantee scene from the movie Tommy Boy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEB7WbTTlu4
To briefly summarize (and sanitize), just because someone puts a guarantee on the box doesn't mean they'll stand by it. The guarantee on the box makes you feel warm and toasty, and that's what you bought -- the warm feelings. But if you have a quality product, you don't need to advertise the guarantee... the product is good enough on it's own.
(or something like that...)
Similarly the -refund, no questions asked- even if its honored by merchants plays on a psychological effect where most people wont ask for a refund (even if they dont use the product) unless its really broken/whatever
marketing is the art of manipulation
My father has been a Leatherman guy for as long as I can remember. We were at a gun show or trade fair many years ago, and leatherman had a stall there. They had a guy manning a service station, and the idea was you bring you multitool and they'll oil it, sharpen the blades, tighten screws etc. All free of course.
So my dad sends me with his leatherman to stand in the queue at this stall, while he goes to enjoy the rest of the expo. Eventually my turn comes up, I hand over my dad's multitool and the gentleman gets to work servicing it. He beckons to the person behind me, to find out what he wants. This guy walks up and dumps a heap of parts on the bench. His multitool was in literal pieces. It fell off his belt while at speed on a motorcycle or something.
The Leatherman Man put down my dad's tool, scraped the heap of scrap off the bench into a bin, reached for a shelf behind him and pulled off a brand new multitool and gave it to this guy, and waved him off.
This to me was the most powerful expression of "we got u" I've ever seen from a company, and they don't even put "no questions asked" on the box!
Needless to say I'm now also a Leatherman guy.
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Sounds like people that claim to be religious or mention they are Christian to gain trust, I lived in the Bible Belt and saw that a lot
that's everywhere
Actually, no. It's incredibly rare in the Nordics, which are way more secular. Claiming to be religious there gains you practically nothing, and might lose you some.
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In general, one's own words are the cheapest, and thus least reliable, form of signaling. If you call yourself "Honest Ed", it's pretty suspicious; if others unironically give you a moniker "Honest Ed", it's high praise.
Understatement is something only the renowned can afford; those who suck (or swindle) have to resort to overstatement and seek gullible audience.
Sometimes people give the names ironically like calling the NFL lineman Tiny
"Open" AI
> I’m suspicious whenever someone says, “I’m an (adjective) (noun).” Why did you need to say, “I’m a great tennis player,” “I’m a deep thinker,” or “I’m a generous person”? Instead, why not simply play tennis, regardless of how great you are? Or think as deeply as you want? Or be generous?
Which is why the whole "identification" fad is bullshit. Why bother identifying as a singer if you cannot sing?
Just a continuation of this postmodern delusion that puts the cart before the horse and elevates language and symbols about reality over reality itself.
Most of the time, you don't have to walk the walk though. With the sports example, you can drop being great at it while talking to people at a bar or dinner party or online as you can't be asked to prove it right then and there. If you claim to be a good singer, you can pretty much do that at any time so that's a bit harder.
When people talk about their own identity, they very rarely mean something like "great at singing".
I admire your confidence that reality is so easily measured and categorized though.
Personally, as I grow older, I find more and more exceptions to things I once thought of as immutable truth.
No, my point is that the concept of identity is nonsense.
Show me a proof of the existence of an "identity" and I will furnish you proof of the soul and god.
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Yup. Anytime someone keeps advertising some trait, its probably a cover up. They might not even be aware of it.
Perhaps they are subconsciously aware of it. That is why they have to go around muttering affirmations to the contrary.
Some of the worst behavior ive seen in my life has been done by devout catholics. who themselves cant see the consequences of their actions. and im not knocking religion, i just had to live alot of life to start being alarmed by outspoken moralists.
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I think most people get taken advantage of at a car dealership because they don't understand that they must do their homework on what the value is of the vehicle they're interested in, understand the financing, knowing what the extended warranty is worth and always walk away from pressure salesmanship.
If something is confusing, have them print out an offer on the vehicle and take it to someone for help. If they don't want to do that, walk! If the buyer remembers the dealership wants to make as much money as they can, then it's you against them. Since this is a given, what's on paper counts.
The more expensive a transaction, the more crap. Houses are worse than cars!
But then if you spend enough more you get into super fancy squads of lawyers territory and a lot more due diligence and contracts.
The sweet spot for scams it:
* rare enough for the average person that they won't do too many in their life, and so it would be high effort to become an expert
* not quite expensive enough that all your potential buyers can lawyer up
Kinda funny that we put up with it. It's not adding value to the economy.
I'm very much ok with having a used car, and in case that's true for you too, here's my thinking:
A private seller may be scamming you, but a professional car salesman is guaranteed to be.
or just call every dealership on the country looking for the ones that randomly need to fill their sales quota that month
I just say "To be honest" when I want to signal I'm about to say something that someone doesn't want to hear or that is slightly inappropriate
The tennis example is weird though. I don't think people who are bad at tennis go around claiming they're great at tennis, do they?
They do, seriously it is very common with male interactions. I have seen it first hand with tennis, golf, chess, and bowling. With golf easily being the most common
I find it helpful to tell people who I know only dabble in eg chess that I am "pretty good at chess" when they do not have enough context on things like Elo and FIDE ratings to be able to understand comparisons like that. Of course, if someone knows what Elo is or is an active chess player then I will more humbly just tell them I am only like 1600 on lichess.
I don't think this is necessarily bad. Compared to people who only dabble in things, someone who spends a decent amount of time on something actually is "pretty good" at it even though they might not be top tier to people within that same culture.
I think there is some popular (dan luu?) blog about this. You can actually pretty easily be in the top 1% of skill or knowledge on something, and while that doesn't make you a world expert by any means, it does kinda make you an expert to an average person. My 1600 rating is very good within the pool of people who know what chess is and can play it, even though it's not impressive at all for people who actively play chess.
Chess? Can't you just ask for their ELO? Or some proxy like chess.com rating? If you're good you must have played a lot of games. If you did, you got some number to back it up.
Dunning Kruger would have us think so.
Also, most people who are good at something let their actions speak.
Tennis is competitive though and unlike golf there’s no form of handicap. When it comes to pick up tennis, it’s not fun playing against someone way below or way above your level. I refer to myself as mediocre at tennis so I can play against people who are around my level. People who are good refer to themselves as being good so that everyone enjoys themselves (and improves) on a court.
The difference between good and mediocre is significant. To the point that I cannot return a good tennis player’s serves. The difference between mediocre and post beginner is just as significant.
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Dunning Kruger is a cognitive bias in overconfident individuals, not a general characteristic found in every person.
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Similarly, there’s a special military unit whose motto is “Facta Non Verba”— deeds, not words. Talk is cheap!