How can we spread rationality and good decision making to people who aren’t inclined to it?
I recently chatted up a friendly doorman who I normally exchange brief pleasantries with. He told me that he was from a particularly rough part of town and that he works three jobs to support his family. He also told me not to worry because he has a new business that makes a lot of money, although had to borrow gas money to get to work that day. He said that he was part of a “travel club”. I immediately felt bad because I had a gut feeling he was talking about some multi-level marketing scheme. I asked him if it was and he confirmed it was, but disagreed that it was a “scheme”. He told me that he is trying to recruit his family, and that the business model encourages recruiting among family and friends. Skip 45 minutes of him selling it to me, I left him with a warning to be cautious because these things can be fly by night operations and that most people need to lose for a very few to win, and that he can win only if he is part of the very best promoters/sellers. I said that on purpose to gauge whether he is a true believer or a wolf in sheep’s clothing but his response was a sort of genuine disbelief that his business was zero sum.
I walked away feeling sad. This guy is really trying to better his life for him and his family and what does life give him? A shitty MLM scheme that will likely harm him and he doesn’t know any better. I have this special hatred for MLM schemes, right up there with religion. The deviousness lies in the difficulty to see MLM schemes for what they are prima facie when it is obfuscated with legitimate business practices, as is what most of these companies do.
I should talk to him again and maybe get him to change his mind. Back to my original question; the people who I want to help can not afford or want to attend things like a CFAR work shop, how do you help these people? And introducing people to LW is tricky. LW isn’t really accessible, it doesn’t find you, you find it.
Back when I was trying to quit cigarettes I had many different types of motivation to get me to stick with not smoking. Money, health, and dating were all reasons for me to quit, and they didn’t work until I found a way of thinking about it that just clicked for me – I didn’t want to be ‘that guy’, that low status loser who couldn’t stop smoking, someone that just didn’t have it in him to quit. So I quit.
I really liked this post because much like when I was trying to quit cigarettes, it’s giving me a different way of thinking about my procrastination that might really click with me. This is a new insight; I want to get things done now and faster, so that I can make room for being fucking awesome!