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I read The confidence game. I was a little curious why the author went back sometimes 200 years to reveal a great scam. But then of course, the most profitable scams are allergic to publicity and will never be told. There is a built-in default were most people appearing of sound mind and intelligence will never publicly admit to being fleeced like clueless yokels stepping off the banana boat.
I noticed there was some overlaps in the scam vocabulary with business templates and media campaign jargon. Whereas scam artists are liars pin-pointing and preying on your exact emotional vulnerability; the content of say, your local (and national) broadcast using the same techniques is of course, beyond reproach. I would have preferred the book to have been expanded beyond the narrow world of fortune tellers, religious hucksters and entrepreneurs selling shares in good mines into real world applications.
She estimates the level of sociopaths in society at the low end, one percent; whereas others have estimated this as high as three per cent of the general population (with female sociopaths being a statistical anomaly) so if you are walking down the street with a click counter that goes up to 100, three of the individuals who walked past you were vampires and a menace to society; behind those sparkling blue eyes, they could rip your heart out and smile because they have no conscience.
Ultimately, I gave The confidence game a solid . . . meh. On a side note, a nice companion piece to the book would be Tornatore’s 2013 film: The Best Offer.
Either of the other two nominations would be fine with me.
I noticed there was some overlaps in the scam vocabulary with business templates and media campaign jargon. Whereas scam artists are liars pin-pointing and preying on your exact emotional vulnerability; the content of say, your local (and national) broadcast using the same techniques is of course, beyond reproach. I would have preferred the book to have been expanded beyond the narrow world of fortune tellers, religious hucksters and entrepreneurs selling shares in good mines into real world applications.
She estimates the level of sociopaths in society at the low end, one percent; whereas others have estimated this as high as three per cent of the general population (with female sociopaths being a statistical anomaly) so if you are walking down the street with a click counter that goes up to 100, three of the individuals who walked past you were vampires and a menace to society; behind those sparkling blue eyes, they could rip your heart out and smile because they have no conscience.
Ultimately, I gave The confidence game a solid . . . meh. On a side note, a nice companion piece to the book would be Tornatore’s 2013 film: The Best Offer.
Either of the other two nominations would be fine with me.
But otherwise.... 