
How to Legally Own Another Person (2015) [pdf] - sillysaurus3
http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/employee.pdf
======
denom
when I read NN Taleb at first I’m intrigued. The ideas and language clicks
together. He says ‘I’m a trader’ but really he is a philosopher courtesan. He
has the sensibility of a wise man.

But after some time, and some more reading, the feel-good effect ends
abruptly.

High praise for autocrats? Criticizing the leaders liberal west as
intrinsically defective? Observations on “renting” women to f __*? It’s all
much too boorish, and _it gets in the way_ of some really solid ideas.

Personally, I’m not sure his ideas are worth the effort of redemption. Maybe
after a good editor cleans it up? I stopped following him on Twitter. But
every time I see some new fragment of his writing I perk up, only to be
disappointed in the end.

~~~
madmax108
This pretty much perfectly sums up my opinion of NN Taleb as well.

Initially, you are in awe of his near-prose like writing, and a couple hundred
pages later, you realise that writing style is just about everything he has
(all style, less substance). His ideas as well are usually pseudo-
philosophical and I'm unsure if any of his writings would hold ground if it
wasn't tied along with the fact that he made millions hedging on a black swan
event (Again, which is a combination of picking your bets and sheer dumb
luck).

Also, the more NN Taleb I read, the more pretentious he comes across as being.

~~~
pasquinelli
off topic: the word prose refers to ordinary written language, as opposed to,
say, poetry, so when you describe his writing as near-prose like, i'm not sure
what you're getting at, but i think you mean to say he writes fairly poetic
prose.

~~~
twic
Any guess at what the grandparent thought 'courtesan' meant?

~~~
denom
I meant Courtier [1] I see NN Taleb as someone who _attends_ to power, but can
never wield real power himself.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtier)

------
t1o5
H1B employment is a legal way to own a person in IT.

To Quote from the article -

" Employees are more risk averse, they fear being fired more than contractors
do being sued. "

Rephrasing -

" H1B employees are even more risk averse, they fear being deported right from
the moment they are fired". A fired H1B employee is out of status from that
very moment. He should leave the country asap.

A winning formula for US IT companies. Hire an H1B employee. Squeeze the juice
out of them. You can own them than any other type of employee in your
organization.

~~~
Ao7bei3s
Not really. An H1B employee easily transfer their visa to another company and
start working even before receiving approval.

But there's L1B employment... that actually binds you to a company.

~~~
t1o5
Its not easy as it sounds. Its not a transfer per say, its a new petition.
Recently premium processing was stopped. Many H1B transfers were in limbo. If
an employee transfers when he has I-140, his greencard process might get
jeopardized. There are many quirks for an employee to change his employers.
Many employers will not allow an employee to join unless his petition is
approved. This is also good for the employee, because there are high chances
that an H1B transfer can go wrong. So no, its not easy.

------
comstock
Hmm I’d never thought about swearing as a social signifier of freedom. That it
shows dominance and that you are “free to do as you like”. What I’d be
interested in knowing is if people really respond to this psychologically?

Is Putin or Trump popularity in part due to people seeing their “I don’t give
a fxxk” attitude and being attracted to that?

~~~
irrational
My father (who ironically was in the military) always said "Swearing is a sign
that you are in the presence of an inferior intellect". I'm not saying I
believe it, but having been raised around that attitude I don't perceive
swearing as indicating competence.

~~~
dpweb
Theres many reasons to use profanity. While it can signal poor self control or
even just poor intelligence or vocabulary, if youre already established well
in those ways, can be used to establish intimacy, or im wild or
unpredicatable.

For instance, Trump saying son of a bitch in a speech I felt was particularly
shocking, even by his standards, but totally contrived.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _While it can signal poor self control_

It’s not always useful to be seen as stable or a worthy adversary. Being
unpredictable or flying under the radar are legitimate strategies.

------
theyregreat
Combine H1B with debt like for cars, education, housing, etc., and that’s
full-on indentured servitude. People under such duress maybe convinced to work
for $30/hr or less.

~~~
toast0
If you are on H1B, and lose status and leave the country, and don't intend to
come back, do you really need to pay car or house loans? Be nice and mail in
the keys, but how are they going to collect anything else? I assume someone in
that situation would cash out their us accounts as they're leaving.

Education debt may be different, there's a good chance that was incurred in
the country of origin, so it's likely the lender has recourse.

~~~
kc10
people who get laid off have to leave the country, but mostly they have every
intention to come back. So they try to settle everything, leave the country
and try to comeback again.

One of my friends left US to get married, but his visa was denied. He had to
sell all the stuff, cars remotely (with friends help) and it took whole 6
years to come back (because of the visa quotas, denials etc). But he
eventually was successful in returning and it's good he settled all his debt
when he was kicked out with a visa denial.

------
ak_yo
If you like this, you might also like Max Weber's essay on bureaucracy:
[https://www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/cerl/conferences/ethics...](https://www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/cerl/conferences/ethicsofsecrecy/papers/reading/Weber.pdf)

------
raldi
The opening story talks about how much of a disaster it is when a contracted
pilot quits on a gig because he got a better offer that paid so much it
covered his breach-of-contract amount... if this is something that terrifies
you, you need to negotiate a higher breach-of-contract value next time.

~~~
emmab
The pilot probably can't afford it. What they need is insurance.

~~~
taneq
And a better truck number.

------
acty1
Once I started foraging and hunting for my pay...I started to feel more free
and much less likely to take bullshit from anyone (afterall, there is always
the next hunt).

The core of your being is changed when you start with yourself as your mental
point of origin and take nothing for granted when it comes to the "mythical
job security".

It's doubly so liberating when you do not have to deal with the ghosts of past
employers and the shadow of what "future employers" will think.

------
sideshowb
> Consider that the English “manners” isn’t something that applies to the
> aristocracy;

I disagree. The aristocracy have a special type of manners finely honed for
putting people at ease while concealing the truth of the situation. Always
distrust anybody too polite.

------
acqq
The newer version, non pdf too:

[https://medium.com/incerto/how-to-legally-own-another-
person...](https://medium.com/incerto/how-to-legally-own-another-
person-4145a1802bf6)

------
s3nnyy
This article accelerated me quitting my well-paid coding job and starting my
own little tech recruiting agency.

~~~
MrLeap
Neat! I'm basically doing this exact thing. I've got a tiny team together and
we're contracting with a structure like a co-op.

Any interest in talking about it?

~~~
Poleris
Also in the same field, eng turned recruiter. Would love to connect and share
experiences if you have time. Email is in my profile.

------
analog31
My impression is that a lot of this ownership has to do with persuading
someone to become emotionally dependent on their situation. Thus a potential
antidote is to maintain a sense of detachment, and to be financially rational.

------
mlevental
call me a dummy but i could never figure out how coase's theorem applies to
firms - i've read all of the examples about allocating spectrum and land and
water rights but i don't see what it has to do with hiring practices.

~~~
ameliaquining
Ronald Coase is best known for two different works, "The Nature of the Firm"
(1937) and "The Problem of Social Cost" (1960). What's become known as the
"Coase theorem" is from the latter. The common thread between the two is that
they're both ultimately about transaction costs.

~~~
mlevental
thank you

------
newsmania
The purpose of requiring a college degree, I have come to realize, is not to
demonstrate knowledge, but rather to demonstrate submissiveness. It shows that
you are decently capable of doing what you are told, and that's all most
employers want to know.

~~~
14113
What drivel is this? The purpose of a college degree is to show to your peers
that an academic institution is satisfied with your level of knowledge in a
particular area.

There are legitimate criticisms of the current university system (such as
cost, political interference in teaching, irerelevant curriculums etc), but
claiming that a college degree "demonstrates submissiveness" is utter
horseshit.

~~~
acty1
What benefit is it to me to show off to my peers?

My peers are not the ones hiring me. By definition it is my superiors hiring
me.

Seems like an exoensive way to demonstrate to my peers.

I think it is better to demonstrate by actually doing (building products,
providing service, insightful writing, etc).

The fact remains that a person who stakes money into a multi-year process is
signalling a few things:

\- they have money/credit \- they are time committed \- they work mostly
within the system \- they acknowledge the authority/validity of the degree

------
unexistance
thought so, it's by Nassim Nicholas Taleb [0], quite active of Facebook :D he
got other social account?

[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb)

~~~
egypturnash
Googling "how to legally own another person taleb" turns up a tweet from him
linking to a version of this on Medium:
[https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/767462311984529409?lang=e...](https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/767462311984529409?lang=en)

His last tweet is twelve hours ago so it's probably fairly active.

------
aportnoy
can anything be more unclassy than using the f-word on every page of your
essay?

~~~
jaggederest
He's just engaged in honest costly signaling, like any good player of a game
with hidden variables and low information sharing.

~~~
aportnoy
that is actually a good comment

