Hacker News Books

Could've been written about the con in general. I recently read a book about this called The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It Every Time by Maria Konnikova [1]. I can highly recommend it.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25387895-the-confidence-...

I'm on a streak of reading Neuromarketing/behavioral economic type books.
1. Predictably irrational is particularly good. Especially the first half.
2. The Confidence Game explains the steps of how con trick people to fool themselves.
3. Buyology is very focused on purchases/retail.
4. Brainfluence. I'm halfway through it. Mostly bite-sized chapters and it's similar to Buyology, but I prefer this book.

> What people are concerned about are the newsfeeds and timelines, specifically. Companies like Facebook and Twitter and YouTube love to pretend that their newsfeed/timeline products are just like chat apps or phone calls--neutral messaging platforms.

> They're not. And the specific reason they are not, is the algorithmic timeline and content suggestions.

They're not because they're public, akin to broadcasting. One to many. In the past such has always been more or less under careful control. Public broadcast TV and radio were under control of dogma and moral, and it wasn't feasible to make your own. Publishers could opt not to release a manuscript if it didn't fit their ideology.

Consider the following thought experiment: "Twitter and Facebook were exactly as popular as they are now but they'd show everything only chronologically (last on top). Do you recon the control problem would be solved at that point?"

Now consider the following thought experiment: "Twitter and Facebook are only private 1:1 conversations. Do you recon the control problem would be solved at that point?"

In example #2 (regardless of it being chronologically shown or via an algorithm) the communication -whatever it might be- only goes to one person, not the general public. This contains the strength of propaganda (such as fake news or hate speech) greatly.

Also, remember that there are all kind of biases [1] even while we're not aware of them or when we are weak to fall for them.

[1] It is worth summing them all up but I am by no means an expert on this subject. I'm currently reading the book "The Confidence Game" by Maria Konnikova and it explains various of them in detail.

> Faced with the right con, we’re all vulnerable.

This This American Life episode (replayed this week) offers a slightly more benign version of this truism:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/323/the-super/act-two

I'm an aficionado of the genre (read Maria Konnikova's The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It Every Time recently) and I think this is my favorite con story ever.

It looks like audio isn't available at the moment but should be back online by tomorrow. If you listen, make sure you listen through to the end.

Transcript (it's Act Two): https://www.thisamericanlife.org/323/transcript

I just finished reading the book "The Confidence Game", and the stories of Delvey or Holmes would fit right into that book.

It's easy to look from the outside in and question how these people could fall for these types of frauds, but I think most people are more susceptible to them than they realize.

Really, what cons are about is selling people a version of the future that they want. With Delvey, her associates were probably motivated to believe her because she spent money freely, and she seemed to belong to a "higher" social order.

What Holmes was selling wasn't blood testing kits, she was selling the idea that healthcare could be "disrupted" and progress the same way that software could. I'm not exactly sure who Tom Draper is or what he said, but for wealthy older people, who may have significant financial stakes in Theranos, you can see why this would be an attractive reality. In contrast, the alternate reality -- that you got suckered in by a fraudster and the progression of healthcare will be as slow and bureaucratic as ever (which means the quality of your life over the next 30 years will slowly, then quickly, decline probably past the point where you will logically want to live anymore)-- seems far less appealing.

It reminds me of someone who I worked with who was a Libertarian. He used to go around trying to "convert" people, and the only things he would ask was "Wouldn't you like to pay less money in taxes? If you didn't have to pay taxes what would you buy? Can you imagine how much money you would make if you didn't have to pay taxes?". He managed to convince like 90% of people that way.

Target was too lazy to check all the gift cards to see if they were redeemed when he called them. 4 out of 6 weren't. That's outrageous. Target should be on the hook for any unredeemed cards from the time he called to report the scam.

BTW: I recommend Maria Konnikova's book "The Confidence Game"

https://www.amazon.com/Confidence-Game-Fall-Every-Time/dp/01...