Index Investing News
Friday, August 29, 2025
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
Index Investing News
No Result
View All Result

The Confidence-Man within the twenty first century

by Index Investing News
November 2, 2024
in Economy
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
0
Home Economy
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


I lately learn Herman Melville’s novel entitled “The Confidence-Man”. (No less than I assumed it was a novel once I picked it up, though typically it appeared extra like a sequence of anecdotes.  I must reread it.)  Within the story, Melville portrays a sequence of con males (or is it only one?), pretending to be a doctor, philanthropist, pharmacist, thinker, psychologist, funding advisor, and so forth.

Certainly one of Melville’s characters observes that it’s virtually not possible for the economic system to perform with out belief:

Confidence is the indispensable foundation of all kinds of enterprise transactions.  With out it, commerce between man and man, as between nation and nation, would, like a watch, run down and cease.

Sadly, evolution provides a bonus to those that make the most of others.  Fortuitously, an equilibrium is reached the place solely a small a part of the inhabitants consists of sociopaths.  Right here’s Melville:

“Pray, which do you assume are most, knaves or fools?”

“Having met with few or none of both, I hardly assume I’m competent to reply.”

“I’ll reply for you.  Fools are most.”

“Why do you assume so?”

“For a similar cause that I believe oats are numerically greater than horses.  Don’t knaves munch up fools simply as horses do oats?”

One character argues that solely machines may be trusted:

“I’m now on the highway to get me made some kind of machine to do my work.  Machines for me.  My cider-mill—does that ever steal my cider?  My mowing-machine—does that ever lay a-bed mornings? My corn-husker—does that ever give me insolence? No: Cider-mill, mowing-machine, corn-husker—all faithfully attend to their enterprise.  Disinterested, too; no board, no wages; but doing good all their lives lengthy; shining examples that advantage is its personal reward—the one sensible Christians I do know.”

“Oh pricey, pricey, pricey, pricey!”

And he anticipates the day when machines shall change all employees:

“Therefore these thousand new innovations—carding machines, horse-shoe machines, tunnel-boring machines, reaping machines, apple-paring machines, boot-blacking machines, stitching machines, shaving machines, run-of-errand machines, dumb-waiter machines, and the Lord-only-knows-what machines; all of which announce the period when that refractory animal, the working or serving man, shall be a buried bygone, a outdated fossil.”  

Melville wrote this in 1857, comparatively early within the new industrial economic system.  In some methods, the problem of “confidence” might be far more central to right this moment’s economic system than to the economic system of the 1850s, when most People had been farmers and lived in small villages the place individuals knew one another.  The next is from a 2021 paper on psychopathology:

On this route, it has been proposed that it could be potential to search out increased ranges of psychopathic traits in sure professions or occupations (e.g., entrepreneurs, managers, politicians, traders, salesmen, surgeons, legal professionals, telemarketing staff). The rationale behind this may very well be that it’s exactly these traits those that might enhance the duties concerned in these professions or occupations and even facilitate success in them (Hare, 2003b; Dutton, 2012; Babiak and Hare, 2019; Fritzon et al., 2020). . . . 

On this regard, Dutton (2012), after making use of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson et al., 1995) on-line to five,400 individuals and asking about their career, discovered that, in the UK, the ten professions with the best ranges of psychopathic traits had been firm CEOs, legal professionals, radio or tv characters, salespersons, surgeons, journalists, monks, cops, cooks, and civil servants.

There’s an excessive amount of dialogue about what AI will or won’t be able to do sooner or later.  I see much less dialogue of how AI will deal with the issue of confidence.  Who would you belief extra, a human promoting natural cures, or an AI dishing out recommendation on natural medication?  A human actual property agent, or an AI offering info on homes on the market?  A human funding advisor or an AI giving funding recommendation? 

If Melville is correct, then the largest factor that AIs may have going for them is that folks belief machines greater than they belief different individuals.  Recall how Uber principally solved the taxi regulation downside.  Maybe AIs will clear up the principal-agent downside.

PS.  This can be a hyperlink to Melville’s novel.  Chapter 7 offers an amusing tackle efficient altruism (particularly the portion from the underside of web page 53 to web page 58.)  



Source link

Tags: 21stcenturyConfidenceMan
ShareTweetShareShare
Previous Post

UBS launches tokenized treasury fund on Ethereum

Next Post

Wall St closes greater as Amazon’s beneficial properties offset weak job development By Reuters

Related Posts

A Collectivist Decide Is a Contradiction in Phrases

A Collectivist Decide Is a Contradiction in Phrases

by Index Investing News
August 26, 2025
0

It's a little bit of a thriller why individuals who declare to be American-style conservatives don't embrace Friedrich Hayek, the...

Will the Fed Reducing Charges Scale back Authorities Borrowing Prices?

Will the Fed Reducing Charges Scale back Authorities Borrowing Prices?

by Index Investing News
August 27, 2025
0

Brief model: no. In my current put up on central banks and independence, I cited Harvard economist Jason Furman in...

Transcript: Ellen Zentner, Chief Financial Strategist at Morgan Stanley

Transcript: Ellen Zentner, Chief Financial Strategist at Morgan Stanley

by Index Investing News
August 27, 2025
0

    The transcript from this week’s, MiB: Ellen Zentner, Chief Financial Strategist at Morgan Stanley, is under. You possibly...

Buyers should not let the tariff drama cloud their judgment

Buyers should not let the tariff drama cloud their judgment

by Index Investing News
May 31, 2025
0

Unlock the Editor’s Digest without costRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.The British...

Donald Trump says he’ll double metal and aluminium tariffs to 50%

Donald Trump says he’ll double metal and aluminium tariffs to 50%

by Index Investing News
May 31, 2025
0

Unlock the White Home Watch e-newsletter without spending a dimeYour information to what Trump’s second time period means for Washington,...

Next Post
Wall St closes greater as Amazon’s beneficial properties offset weak job development By Reuters

Wall St closes greater as Amazon's beneficial properties offset weak job development By Reuters

What Occurred to Pregnant Teen Nevaeh Crain in Texas? A Nearer Look – Hollywood Life

What Occurred to Pregnant Teen Nevaeh Crain in Texas? A Nearer Look – Hollywood Life

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECOMMENDED

Mobileye posts robust Q1, reaffirms steering regardless of tariffs

Mobileye posts robust Q1, reaffirms steering regardless of tariffs

April 27, 2025
How B-Stock Drives Buyer Demand for Your Inventory

How B-Stock Drives Buyer Demand for Your Inventory

March 28, 2024
Market Outlook: Tariff Rollercoaster Continues, ECB Price Choice & Inflation Information Focus

Market Outlook: Tariff Rollercoaster Continues, ECB Price Choice & Inflation Information Focus

April 12, 2025
Stars rookie Wyatt Johnston staying in NHL

Stars rookie Wyatt Johnston staying in NHL

October 31, 2022
Modi Set To Host Leaders Of Neighbouring Nations At Swearing-In Ceremony

Modi Set To Host Leaders Of Neighbouring Nations At Swearing-In Ceremony

June 5, 2024
This happiness writer used to say happiness is a selection. Now she admits she was unsuitable

This happiness writer used to say happiness is a selection. Now she admits she was unsuitable

May 20, 2025
Jamie Lee Curtis Talks ‘Freaky Friday’ Sequel With Lindsay Lohan – Hollywood Life

Jamie Lee Curtis Talks ‘Freaky Friday’ Sequel With Lindsay Lohan – Hollywood Life

October 10, 2022
What Occurred to Donald Trump at His Pennsylvania Rally? Updates – Hollywood Life

What Occurred to Donald Trump at His Pennsylvania Rally? Updates – Hollywood Life

July 15, 2024
Index Investing News

Get the latest news and follow the coverage of Investing, World News, Stocks, Market Analysis, Business & Financial News, and more from the top trusted sources.

  • 1717575246.7
  • Browse the latest news about investing and more
  • Contact us
  • Cookie Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • DMCA
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • xtw18387b488

Copyright © 2022 - Index Investing News.
Index Investing News is not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion

Copyright © 2022 - Index Investing News.
Index Investing News is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In