From Anti-Dem Playboy After Dark
Another possibility is that the ‘Playboy lifestyle’ is no longer ‘cool’, as millennials eschew ostentatious materialism for intellectualism and minimalism. Millennials want to be rich, but prefer saving or investing the money instead of squandering it on positional goods. They want to be like Zuck, Musk, Buffett or Gates, not some washed up playboy who blows all his money on drugs and alimony. These aforementioned individuals exemplify individualism, intelligence, and competence – all traits highly valued in today’s society and economy. In other words, INTP people rule the world, and will likely continue to do so.
In the past few years, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Tesla stock have surged, along with the QQQ tech index and S&P 500. Web 2.0 valuations keep going up, with Uber, Snapchat, and AirBNB worth $50 billion, $15 billion, and $25 billion, respectively, gains of 200-300% since 2013. Bay Area real estate is up 50-100% since 2012. Who’s getting rich from all of this? INTP people, mostly.
The irony is that people who are the most reticent, introverted are the most sought after, the highest paid – in effect becoming today’s new ‘rock stars‘. Competence, again and again, overrides people skills and extraversion. Warren Buffet, for example, projects the public image of a fuddy-duddy, yet everyone can’t get enough of him, and his shareholder meetings are like ‘Woodstock’ as thousands of his ‘fans’ from all over the world descend to Omaha for his wisdom, and choruses in the media sing his praise. Elon Musk’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ was perhaps the most popular in the history of Reddit, getting over 11,000 laudatory comments. Like Buffet, Musk lives in his head, not among the crowds, but the crowds online keeps flocking to him because he’s so brilliant.
In an era of gig jobs and temp work, people are getting paid for the economic value they create, both directly and indirectly. The reason why Uber, Air BNB, and Snapchat are worth so much and their employees are paid so much is because these companies harness ‘network effects’ to create billions of dollars of indirect economic value through the millions of users that use these services. Snapchat doesn’t produce anything, but it’s valuable because it harnesses a network of hundreds of millions of eyeballs that you can put ads in front of. It’s like TV, but even a step further, since Snapchap doesn’t have to make content.
Having a lot of money and being smart is optimal, but being smart (especially in a science field, but economics and philosophy also count) also makes you a valued person in today’s economy, with throngs of ‘digital’ fans and followers, along with karma, links, reputation and other accouterments – digital ‘flare’ – that signify one’s worth and prestige. This is part of the rise of ‘expert culture’ – a culture that rewards being an expert. Carl Segen was among the first, in his hugely popular 1980 Cosmos series, but now we’re seeing this online, with hundreds of smaller ‘Segens’ – popular YouTube channels like Thunderf00t, who mixes science with criticism of feminism. Another is Scott Alexander, a blogger who uses his expert status on psychology and internet subcultures to poke holes at the more radical elements of liberalism to his audience of tens of thousands.
on Reddit just yesterday a ‘TIL’ about Manhattan Project mathematician Richard Hamming got over 5,000 upvotes, landing a spot on the ‘front page’. Not an athlete, actor, or musical artist – but a mathematician. This is further evidence of how STEM ‘culture’, particularly the INTP personality sub-type, is becoming ‘mainstream’. Mathematicians, scientists, and other STEM people are today’s ‘rock stars‘ for millions of young people. The rise of STEM is party related to the post-2103 SJW backlash. Whether it’s stock trading, biotechnology, math, or coding, people in STEM get ahead through individualism, intellectualism, competence, and value-creation – traits that are highly valued in a post-2008 economy – as opposed to connections, collectivism, quotas, and nepotism, all of which characterized the ‘old economy’. Perhaps there is a backlash, both in the economy and in popular culture, against overpaid people who produce little economic value. STEM is seen as an ‘ally’ in the ‘war’ against SJWs, as STEM is empirical and rigorous, with facts and logic overriding leftist emotions and opinions.
Even Martin Shkreli, the son of poor Albanian and Croatian immigrants, is seen a STEM ‘hero’ to many – a self-made American success story who used his intellect (his parents were janitors, so he had no special connections to get ahead) to conquer the drug industry and get rich – until it fell apart. But even in light of these fraud allegations, many are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, arguing that perhaps his good qualities (intellect, ambitiousness, biotech knowledge, and tenacity) are enough to overlook the potential fraud, similar to how Theodore Kaczynski has many ‘fans’ for his writings and mathematical contributions in spite of being a domestic terrorist. But on the other hand, Martin Shkreli’s Reddit AMA went badly over the predictable outrage over the 5,000% price hike of Daraprim, so there are limits to how much slack the public will give its STEM celebrities.
Playboy is pretty much defunct, having filed bankruptcy in 2012. Because Playboy is owned by creditors, Hugh’s net worth is probably zero. The mansion is a facade. Meanwhile, INTP ’empires’ like Microsoft, Google, Tesla, and Facebook are thriving.