The meta strategy seems clear: if the world seems full of grifters, stop being a Mark, and start being a Skeptic.

Or, I suppose, go on thinking this time is different.

energy123 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Don't believe the latest fashion on social media, including the latest thing it's fashionable to be sceptical about. That rule of thumb performed well the last 10 years.

	▲	MarkusQ 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Don't believe the latest fashion on social media, including the latest thing it's fashionable to be sceptical about. I don't think choosing to believe in something just because other people are piling on being skeptical of it is a viable strategy. If you hear a lot of people pointing out "X is a scam" you shouldn't refuse to believe them on principle.
	▲	allthetime 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The simple version: get off social media. The dilemma for me is that aspects of social media (namely information sharing and learning) are incredibly useful, while others (contrarian argumentation, propaganda, attention black holes) are very harmful. I go through cycles of abstaining from online interaction because I’ve sunk into the dark side too much but then return with a stronger intention in order to feed my hobbies and mind. I’ve found that it’s not so simple to just “not believe” what you see and read as being constantly bombarded with political messaging necessarily pushes you to one side or the other unconsciously. So yeah, for me the best way is to cut that feed off entirely, instead of pretending I have any kind of effective fire wall against its deeper mental effects.

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kruffalon 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don't think that's a viable strategy.

If you're a Mark (=trusting person) I don't think you can just decide to become a Skeptic.

I admit I skimmed the article and even if I would read more closely I don't think I would understand it better.

I'll use my intuition for how individuals transition between the roles.

Mark -> Skeptic: requires to be have been grifted and possibly having the grift explained by a Skeptic. Or possibly having someone close to you get grifted.

Mark -> Grifter: I'm not sure it's possible, but maybe the corruption pdf posted[0] is a clue.

Skeptic -> Grifter: desillusion about the point of not grifting since everyone else is doing it too. So maybe late stage corruption[0] or just nihilism based on seeing grifts succeed so much.

Skeptic -> Mark: honestly... Shrooms maybe? Or finding and being chosen into a trusting community.

Grifter -> Skeptic: I think realising that you've hurt someone in an unexpectedly harsh way could help this transition. Otherwise I don't really know besides being short of Marks.

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[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47177186