A sidenote on Algorithms- part 5
Influencers — How easy it is to pretend to be an expert online.
Internet had blurred boundaries, upended businesses and changed the way our life is lived.
Everyone has their own “expert” that they listen to.
Cut to a few years ago —
You asked about food advice from your peers or doctors.
You took fitness advice from your gym instructor.
You listened to financial advice from your dad/mom/peers.
Think about what’s changed. Anything you want to learn right now, there’s an expert willing to tell it to you.
You can just youtube any topic and can find help.
That’s great. I am all for knowledge sharing. :)
That’s the way it should be.
In an ideal world.
Ofcourse, we do not live in an ideal world now, do we?
People have learned to game the system.
They know how people think and act accordingly.
A really popular fitness youtuber has his own brand of protein but he always reviews other companies and never advertises his own.
He just “casually” places it in the background and people say things like— “OMG see he is such a great guy” “See, he never promotes his X brand”
These people are naive. They think he’s not promoting himself.
The entire video is a establishing himself as the authority on something as silly as protein powders.
And it is the fans who’re advertising his stuff in the comments.
Your comment — “See, he never promotes his X brand”
Will probably be seen by millions. You are in fact a surrogate advertisement.
Free of cost. Now who does not want that.!
Let’s say you want to invest. You search a few sites,read some blogs and listen to interviews.
All of a sudden what happens — your feed shifts from pictures of a dancing dog to “experts” willing Think. to help you get upto 98% positive returns on your money.
Who are these guys.?
They figured out the game before you did.
They will end up multi-millionares before you ever would be.
Their fee Rs.99 or a $1 for a seminar is kept low to keep cost of entry low.
No one cares about where they spend a dollar.
That is what they’re counting on.
You will see ads like this — What will Rs100 get you- nothing?You do spend that money all the time. Why not spend your time listening to an expert?
And many people do. They start considering it. And then they pay.
Tell me this- If he was so much of an expert, would he be willing to part with his time for a dollar.
Would you be willing to do that for a subject you’re an expert in. ?
Think.
Think again. How much would you charge for your expertise?
All you need is an internet connection, reasonable communication skills and an ability to pretend to be an expert.
Think again.
I believe you would not.
Then why is he — the so called “expert” doing it ?
They’re looking at numbers. There’s safety in numbers. There’s scale in numbers.
10,000 people paying the guy a dollar makes him $10,000.
Doing seminars all day everyday for 10 hours(a normal day’s work) makes him a 1,00,000 dollars a day.
Read that above line again.
A hundred thousand dollars in a day.!
That’s the salary of someone starting over at google. And the “expert” just earned it in a day.
Why in the world wouldn’t he do it.
All you need is an internet connection, reasonable communication skills and an ability to pretend to be an expert.
That’s all it takes.
That and an ability to con people out of their hard earned money.
Listen to the real experts, not the self-proclaimed ones.
