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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao (田 )
Venkatesh Rao (田 )
Venkatesh Rao (田 )
@vgr

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Venkatesh Rao (田 )

@vgr

Personal account. Writing @ribbonfarm. Hail threadthulhu 🐙

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

    Grifts are undertheorized, and too often conflated with long cons, scams, frauds and other more blatant soft crimes. Lemme offer a definition. A grift is a scheme that profits from the existence of a real problem without actually addressing it.

    9:03 AM - 30 Jun 2020
    • 418 Retweets
    • 1,574 Likes
    • Billy Smith S. Stirling Ljubomir Josifovski Zack 🐱Get Rid of the Nazis🐱 Oak 🟣 RTB-Bot jack caunter dotglum Gear Starmer
    35 replies 418 retweets 1,574 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Small grifts merely exploit the problem. Big grifts perpetuate it. A grift is particularly stable because unlike a true scam it doesn’t offer decisive solutions that claim to fully solve it and can therefore proved to not work. Theranos was a scam, not a grift.

        3 replies 34 retweets 244 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Grifts are not long cons either. Cons exploit timeless human fallibility (see for example Erving Goffman classic “on cooling the mark out”). Grifts otoh exploit potentially solvable problems. http://infofranpro.wikidot.com/19520101-on-cooling …

        2 replies 14 retweets 150 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Grifts are not frauds either. Occassionaly they may rely on misinformation, bad science or philosophy but rarely on intentionally falsified information or scholarship. Frauds involve deliberate lying that could be exposed. Grifts are built on shaky but not false ground.

        2 replies 12 retweets 154 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Grifts feed the urge to “do something” to stop feeling helpless in the face of hard problems. If it looks like a theater about a hard problem, and fits the “-washing” suffix, it’s a grift. Greenwashing Covidwashing Wokewashing Magawashing Security theater All grifts.

        6 replies 52 retweets 265 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Grifts feed what was called the politicians syllogism is Yes, Prime Minister: We must do something This is something We must do this Usually the utter mismatch between problem and supposed solution is obvious to experienced people. It is obvious how it will fail on day 1.

        2 replies 48 retweets 286 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        But it is really hard to explain because the weakness is at the level of systems impedance mismatch. You can’t prove it can’t work. And sometimes a grift is timed right so it is active when broader forces actually cause movement on the problem, and the grifters can claim credit.

        3 replies 21 retweets 153 likes
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      8. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Grifts often rely on narrative vacuums. When the real story is too complicated or boring or requires numbers and graphs to understand, people reach for the simpler story. Grifters supply it. Plastic straw ban bullshit narrative? Pure 100% sustainability grifter theater.

        2 replies 84 retweets 357 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        You don’t even have to be a sustainability expert. Five minutes googling reveals that plastic straws are not a real problem, that the whole campaign was based on some kid’s estimate, that fishing nets are the actually biggest source of plastic waste etc etc.

        2 replies 13 retweets 216 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Anybody who knowingly pushed and hyped that thing literally does not care about the environment, climate action or sustainability. They merely want to profit from the existence of climate action as a hard problem,em people are motivated to do something about. Grifters.

        2 replies 19 retweets 211 likes
        Show this thread
      11. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        The world is currently overflowing with hard problems, so it is overflowing with grift as well. To be continued. Gotta shower, eat, and do a meeting.

        4 replies 13 retweets 174 likes
        Show this thread
      12. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        A good way to tell a grift apart from other similar things is to ask: if it is exposed as such, does it get undermined completely or can it still survive. Grifts can survive exposure by claiming to be about instilling values. Which is almost a good argument.

        2 replies 14 retweets 125 likes
        Show this thread
      13. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        For eg. consider this hypothetical exchange: "The plastic straws thing is bullshit" "I know, but still, it raises awareness of plastic waste as an issue" "But the real problem of fishnet waste and microparticulates aren't addressed!" "Straw campaign is still worth something."

        2 replies 6 retweets 125 likes
        Show this thread
      14. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        There are grey area grifts. For example, is recycling a grift? Most stuff can't actually be "recycled" with net reduction in environmental impact (besides clean PET, aluminum). Recycling is in crisis (China National Sword, plus Covid) Still: maybe instilling behaviors is good?

        4 replies 7 retweets 95 likes
        Show this thread
      15. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        I'm on the fence on this one. Recycling doesn't work now, but *could* be made to work, and it's good to have those behaviors installed -- so long as people are actively working on the problem. If they're not (currently they're not), why bother with "aspirational recycling"?

        3 replies 4 retweets 84 likes
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      16. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        But overall, I don't think recycling is a grift. At best it is collective wishful thinking. And it could still kinda work out.

        1 reply 1 retweet 79 likes
        Show this thread
      17. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        But the important point is that when you switch the justification from "it works" to "it installs values/creates awareness" you're suddenly changing the economic and effort logic. Actual solutions are worth much more than "creating awareness" about a problem.

        1 reply 17 retweets 131 likes
        Show this thread
      18. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        If you've installed a lucrative and profitable habit that an org is used to doing, stopping it is both hard and counterproductive to the grifting motive. Why not charge "solution" rates for "awareness" palliatives if the suckers will continue to pay?

        1 reply 4 retweets 76 likes
        Show this thread
      19. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        By contrast, scams, frauds, long cons... when they are exposed, they become untenable. Buying back into the narrative on alternative premises is impossible. The lie is just too big and blatant.

        1 reply 1 retweet 61 likes
        Show this thread
      20. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Almost all business consulting offerings structured as domain-independent process training and workshops are almost-grifts. Almost because they cut to the chase and pitch "awareness" and "values" level value propositions from the start, never even pretending to solve the problem.

        1 reply 8 retweets 106 likes
        Show this thread
      21. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Another clear "tell" of a grift: there are no learnable skills that are unique to the grift itself. For example: lean six sigma is a grift because the skilled content is just standard textbook statistics, industrial engineering etc. The meta-stuff is all theatrical bullshit.

        2 replies 28 retweets 175 likes
        Show this thread
      22. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Another clear tell: the grift feeds on what I call "learning curve arbitrage" -- it relies on a steady supply of n00bs who don't yet know enough to know what doesn't work, and can be conned into idealistic and energetic belief and performance of theater.

        4 replies 9 retweets 137 likes
        Show this thread
      23. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        If you as grifter, can find a particularly idealistic, sincere, energetic, and charismatic young ingenue (not necessarily female) to use as figurehead (*cough* Greta *cough* Joan of Arc *cough*) a LOT of grifter reputations can be laundered by BIRGing a genuine idealist.

        1 reply 4 retweets 76 likes
        Show this thread
      24. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        The presence of such ingenues within a movement is a very clear tell. Snowden, Damore, Greta, etc. etc. It's almost a sign of arrival for a larger grift, at cottage-industry scale (the unicorn scale for grift startups) when they find themselves a charismatic innocent to work with

        2 replies 2 retweets 65 likes
        Show this thread
      25. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Venkatesh Rao (田 ) Retweeted Venkatesh Rao (田 )

        Btw, this thread on grifting is complementary to my thread on bullshit jobs and where they come from. Grifting creates bullshit jobs if they succeed in installing themselves. Eliminating bullshit jobs is the defense against grifting attacks.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1277760202951897089 …

        Venkatesh Rao (田 ) added,

        Venkatesh Rao (田 ) @vgr
        Culture war wrangling has unfortunately become a key element in my consulting. It is now the 4th, and youngest manifestation of bullshit jobs. Bullshit jobs evolve in one of 4 ways: automation, outsourcing, trumpification, and now: wokification. Only the first 2 are survivable
        Show this thread
        2 replies 9 retweets 85 likes
        Show this thread
      26. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        I will admit I have a soft spot for grifters who aren't too damaging. The optimal amount of grift in a system is not zero. Grifters do serve one valuable function: draining away clueless idealist energy down distraction bunny trails.

        1 reply 3 retweets 114 likes
        Show this thread
      27. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Damnit, I had a couple of great turns of phrase I was thinking of for additional points, but then got distracted by something and forgot them. Now unless I remember them, you'll all have to do without them.

        2 replies 1 retweet 38 likes
        Show this thread
      28. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        AH YES I recall one of the phrases. Problem aestheticization. Instead of solving a problem, you make it look prettier. Many grifts are based on problem aestheticization. It's literally palliative to sensory trauma. It's like painting a house but billing the cost of the house.

        1 reply 10 retweets 124 likes
        Show this thread
      29. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        Problem aestheticization is a great way to construct a grift because it at once presents a cheap thing to sell, and a clear audience that will buy. There are 2 kinds of people concerned by a problem. People concerned about consequences. People concerned about ugliness.

        1 reply 13 retweets 71 likes
        Show this thread
      30. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        The thing is, people concerned about the consequences of a problem going unsolved tend to investigate and think through boring, wonky, solution options. You do NOT want these people if you're a grifter. You want those emotionally traumatized by the *symptoms* of the problem.

        1 reply 12 retweets 75 likes
        Show this thread
      31. Venkatesh Rao (田 )‏ @vgr 30 Jun 2020

        If you're a woke grifter working in the racism market, you do NOT want to focus on say incarceration rates because that problem is literally locked away out of sight. There is no opportunity to aestheticize the problem. You want to focus on say casting decisions in hollywood.

        4 replies 8 retweets 112 likes
        Show this thread
      32. Show replies

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