You know, I started this newsletter back in the summer of 2020, when an invisible enemy raged throughout the world. To make matters worse, we didn’t know much if anything about this new foe. While it certainly was disturbing in many ways, I found it nice to see people uniting against this enemy. Remember when healthcare workers faced a shortage of masks, and how everyone started making them at home?
However, nowadays it seems as if we’ve exchanged one problem for the other, with Russia invading Ukraine. And while there’s this belief that humankind gets better as time goes on, the implication being that it learns its lessons from history, once again we find ourselves in a futile war.
Which brings me to the book I’m reading now, which is related to history: “Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World” by Liaquat Ahamed. It is about the crash of 1929 and tells the story through the 4 figures who were at the helm of the central banks of the major Western powers at the time: United Kingdom, France, Germany and the United States. Ahamed goes back to just before the First World War, painting a beautiful picture of that time period.
Back then, they thought, much like we do now, that people have learned their lessons, that it would not escalate into a full-scale war. Economists put forward logical, rational arguments as to why that simply could not happen. Various European countries had lent money to each other money, which they would not see again in the event of war. And even if they decided to do so, the state treasuries would soon run out, in a matter of months. Well, the economists turned out to be wrong, didn’t they? Turns out, if the state needs money, it tends to find it. The UK borrowed money from the US, Germany simply printed the money they needed – thereby causing inflation.
Still think full-scale war on is impossible nowadays? Think again.
Switching topics. As you probably realize by now, I’m interested in lots of different subjects. A few years ago, I started learning about marketing, how someone can promote their business. At the time, I came across this guy on YouTube, claiming to be an expert. The man, of Chinese descent, always gave his talks wearing an expensive red suit, full of self-confidence. Back then, I listened to his videos in the background. And, I won’t lie, here and there he gave some good advice, meaning it all sounded sensible and there were a number of aha moments for me.
However, after a while, I noticed that he took up a lot of time with the way he told his stories. You’d listen to this hour lecture and barely learn anything, and ultimately, it wasn’t clear what to do with his information as a complete novice.
Anyways, I decided to ignore him, going upstream to find different experts. Somehow, the next expert I stumbled on, told the exact same stories. The difference being, that he had actually gone through them himself. Suddenly it dawned on me: the Chinese expert told most of his stories in the third person.
Oh, well. Then, about two years ago now, the Chinese marketing expert found himself exposed on a well-known YouTube channel, for selling overpriced courses without delivering anything valuable for the money. Surprise, surprise. Here’s what I found to be interesting about the whole issue: this man was devilishly cunning at gaining everyone’s trust and getting people to open up their wallets. Fact is, whilst he didn’t do anything illegal, he simply went for the money at all costs, while ignoring what he was actually delivering to his customers in terms of value.
It reminds me of these con artists in the movies, like Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo Di Caprio. They seem to be smart enough to make it by the book, but they can’t help themselves: they want it all, and they want it now. In their desire for a shortcut, they doom themselves.
See, the Chinese expert previously had a beautiful and thriving YouTube channel, but since the whole fiasco happened, his channel has gone downhill. The scandal clearly impacted him.
Now, instead of making ammends, each of his videos is clearly outsourced and delegated, probably to a combination of freelancers and poorly paid minions. The results speak for themselves: four million subscribers, with videos viewed thirty thousand times. That’s only 0.75 percent. The number of subscribers is still there, so to speak, but no one is watching anymore. On to the next project, most likely.
This is how many of these experts think. They love looking for the latest, newest trick, for whatever they’re involved in. And to find those, they all read the same list of books and listen to the same material. It creates a dogma within the group, a thought pattern from which no deviation is allowed. Don’t want to fall into the same trap? Start thinking for yourself. Food for thought.
Kind regards
Vincent J. Dancet