
Wealth anorexia a.k.a. hating yourself because you're not Larry Ellison - hernan7
http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/2010/08/dangers-of-unrealistic-wallet-image.html
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rwhitman
If this is a real problem I'd say it applies less to successful entrepreneurs
who try too hard, but more for semi-successful middle-managers and sales
people etc who put themselves in debt to gain the appearance of wealth. I mean
isn't this partly the root cause for the housing bubble and subsequent
collapse?

When you walk into a swanky club, the guys getting bottle service, that buy
Range Rovers and overpriced condos they have to make ridiculous payments on -
I would say these are the guys with wealth anorexia.

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phren0logy
Speaking as someone who treats anorexia, this is a deeply flawed metaphor.
Anorexia is not only about self-image but often about control, particularly
controlling the one thing that is extremely difficult for other people to
force you to do: eat. It is more often rooted in control than mere vanity or
jealousy.

It is not the same, even as a shallow metaphor, as desiring to be wealthy.

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hugh3
Interesting. The idea that gets spread around about anorexics is that they
honestly believe themselves to be too fat, even when they're dangerously
underweight. Are you saying that's not really the case? (It always seemed iffy
to me...)

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phren0logy
No, the distorted body image is absolutely a part of it. But it's just one
part of several that make anorexia what it is. It is a complex problem, and
not well reduced to one element.

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Marticus
I just really liked one of the comments:

"(Steve Jobs = Angelina Jolie; Mark Zuckerberg = Scarlett Johansson; who's
Paris Hilton?)

Well, Paris Hilton is pretty but dumb. So the "wealth anorexia" version would
be someone who's insanely rich, but dumb. So Paris Hilton is... Paris Hilton."

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natrius
> _What we're really talking about here, in its extreme form, is Wealth
> Anorexia--a disease of distorted self-image that causes even the wildly
> successful to pursue their obsession beyond a reasonable point. ... Wealth
> anorexia is a problem for men._

There's no evidence that this is a common problem that negatively affects
people's lives. The most common result of trying extremely hard to be
ridiculously rich is becoming modestly successful, except for the cases in
which someone throws their entire life savings into a business that fails. I
doubt that is common.

The allure of parallelism has lead the author to an odd and inaccurate
metaphor.

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sgman
"The most common result of trying extremely hard to be ridiculously rich is
becoming modestly successful"

The most common result of trying extremely hard to be ridiculously thin is
becoming modestly healthy.

The analogy stands.

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natrius
I disagree. I don't think many people at all try to become _ridiculously_
thin. Plus, such attempts rarely lead to good health, which is why eating
disorders are such a big issue.

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sgman
Just as "ridiculously rich" is relative (for some people in 3rd world
countries it could be having a few thousand dollars) so is "ridiculously thin"
(for someone weighing 350 pounds this could be weighing 250 pounds). And I
would argue that achieving this goal, in general, leads to better health. This
is not to say that exceptions which lead to poor results don't exist in both
cases, which makes the correlation even stronger.

~~~
natrius
You're stretching this metaphor further and further into absurdity. The author
of the post wonders why "wealth anorexia" doesn't get similar attention to
that of actual anorexia. The answer is because anorexia actually has negative
effects on the lives of many people. "Wealth anorexia" does not.

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aidenn0
I don't know about everyone else, but I'd rather be poor than be Larry
Ellison.

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hugh3
Why is that?

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jacoblyles
Because Larry Ellison has different beliefs on patents than what is generally
accepted in this crowd. So of course, it would be a horror to be him.

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Synthetase
Money makes a wonderful servant and a terrible master.

You have to ask yourself, is money what you're after or a simulacrum for
something else? I suspect for most people its the latter.

~~~
tomjen3
Money can buy political power, and chicks dig people with power.

So yeah, it is a simulacrum for something else - hot girls.

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deco
I think it's worth noting that someone who develops an eating disorder like
anorexia is mostly hurting themselves through emotional distress and physical
damage to their body. The emotional pain their friends and family experience
when such a disorder takes hold of a loved one is part of the situation as
well.

When someone pursues the goal of becoming ridiculously rich they get into the
position of being able to inflict great financial and emotional pain on a much
larger number of people. The Enron executives who contributed to the
destruction of many people's pensions and heads of state who siphon government
funds to support their royal lifestyles while their citizens starve are two
prime examples.

I'm not trying to trivialize eating disorders nor am I saying that pursuit of
wealth is inherently bad, but history has numerous examples of how greed can
cause people to carry out extremely inhumane actions that affect large numbers
of other people.

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tdmackey
Even if the people who actually become billionaires are small those who
attempt and fail are often better off than they started. The middle ground
between ones current status in life and reaching billionaire status is an
immense landscape with many opportunities. In contrast to the counterpoint in
his article the middle ground between playing basketball in say high school
playing in the NBA is very slim; it is very much an all or nothing game where
as the quest for wealth is vastly opposite.

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sabj
25 Comments, no one has yet pointed out the fact that one might not want to be
Larry Ellison... ;)

That said, I would like to have Larry Ellison's money.

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lionhearted
> I felt compelled to point out that the chances of becoming a billionaire
> were pretty darn slim.

There's something subtle here I disagree with... "chances of becoming a
billionaire" - chance is involved, but so is choice. I see this a lot, people
talking about becoming a billionaire as if it's a random thing. How many
people make a serious commitment to becoming a billionaire, research how to do
it, manage their time, and actively try? I'll wager - not too many.

I've crunched the numbers on what it'd take to be a billionaire, and I'm not
interested in putting in that time - I have science and art and writing to do.
But I think I could if I set my mind to it. Or maybe not! But how many people
actually look at what it'd take to become a billionaire, say, "Okay, I'm
willing to do all of the first steps, then keep taking risks, investing
wisely, consumingly moderate/lowly, and so on." How many people try, and how
many of them succeed? I'll wager not many try, and quite a lot of those who
seriously try succeed.

Edit: About his general point about "wealth anorexia" - yeah, it's just money,
not something worth evaluating yourself by. Make a lot of money because
there's no real reason not to make a lot of money, so long as you're doing it
by creating things people want and getting a small fraction of the value you
create in return.

This is a common point I see - people who aren't single-minded don't
understand single-minded people. I tried to cover it here -
<http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=107> \- "Rule an Empire, a Fistful of
Rice" - it's with excerpts from the Lone Wolf and Cub comic as an argument and
eventual duel between two fallen samurai. The first is telling the second that
he's doing bad things for money, and why does he need the money? No matter how
much money you have, your belly only holds one fistful of rice. But he doesn't
understand that people who build empires are very aware of that - the money is
a tool for doing other things. Me, I'd like to make at least hundreds of
millions so I can sponsor research, build hospitals, build universities, build
temples, commission art and support artists, get great engineers working on
amazing projects... a friend said he'd be happy making $80k and can't think of
anything else he'd do with it. I said - really? Work on curing diseases,
sponsor arts, build a private military and go dismantle the North Korean
government? I can think of lots of things I'd do with a hell of a lot of
money...

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jedc
The chances of becoming a billionaire are even more slim than what the OP
wrote. A number of billionaires become billionaires by inheritance or just
modest growth of existing wealth. (Compared to NBA stars, who all have to
prove themselves no matter their background.)

To become a billionaire from middle-class means IS remarkable.

~~~
lionhearted
> The chances of becoming a billionaire are even more slim than what the OP
> wrote.

I think they're greater than he wrote - I bet there'll be over 5,000
billionaires in 20 years, and over 100,000 in 50 years. At least. Maybe more.

> To become a billionaire from middle-class means IS remarkable.

This I agree with. I'm lower middle class/upper lower class born actually, so
would it be even more remarkable if I did it? But again, I have science and
art and writing to do too, not to mention building a family, so billionaire
isn't on my priorities list. I'm trying to have $50k in the bank at the end of
this year, $300k in 3 years, $1 million in 5 years, and $10 million in the
bank in ten years. I'll re-evaluate at that point, I think I could do it if I
put myself to it single-mindedly, but I'm also writing books, learning about
and making art, etc, etc. You give up a lot if you want to get there, but
really all the stuff I've given up doesn't feel like such a loss compared to
the joy of creating, producing, learning, connecting with people, serving
people... I don't miss spectator sports, drinking, recreational drugs, surfing
the 'net so much. Creation is joy.

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aufreak3
Going by what the Gates family is doing these days, running for billionaire
seems a heck of a fun roller coaster ride to raising funds for the kinds of
betterment of the world that you care about. The other options being running
for president or prime minister.

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switch
what about people who want to money for the the joy of the experience itself?

isn't anyone here addicted to making money - it feels amazing.

anyways - it's glad to see that one girl and this guy writing all these posts
and weeding out the non-serious people.

lionhearted's comment is spot on - Not very many people go all out to be a
billionaire. If posts like these keep proliferating the numbers might go down
even more.

