I don’t know what it is about computer science that makes people so confident they’re always the smartest person in the room, but it does lead to some interesting scams.
It’s not computer science. It’s money and power. Having everyone else in your life falling all over themselves to kiss your ass is toxic to one’s personality, and makes it hard to stay grounded.
The thing with becoming rich and powerful through other avenues, it might happen in a way that you’re less confident in your intellectual capabilities and are used to outsourcing things to professionals. If you’re a pro athlete or actor or musician, you might come up with the understanding that you need your agents and lawyers and accountants to do what they do.
But tech business leaders who become rich feel that they know the tech, know the business, and know the world. The thing they are most confident about is the thing that made them rich.
See also some athletes believing in nonsense about health and fitness, because of their superior athletic performance.
Or artists who descend into terrible rabbit holes, artistically, because nobody is around to tell them no.
Anyone who gets rich off of their smarts is susceptible. Engineers, doctors, bankers, financial professionals, lawyers, etc.
themagzuz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
it’s because they’ve bought in to the capitalist myth. only smart people can make lots of money, so surely they must be smart. combine this with yes men and snake oil salesmen who make their money scamming rich people, and the result is a lot of rich people who are really into weird pseudoscience
TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 4 days ago
I’m not sure if it’s purely spurned by capitalism, though I’m sure it doesn’t help. I think it’s more of an issue with narcissistic egos, considering even our global leaders are prone to fantastical thinking when it comes down to longevity. Not too long ago Xi and Putin were caught on a hot mic talking about immortality via organ donation. That’s not how any of this works…