A joke about efficient markets, and a deep truth about life

I just came across a joke I first heard in an introductory economics lecture. Back then it didn't notice the depth of it, though. Here it is:

A professor and an investor are walking down the street when the investor sees a $20 bill and stoops down to pick it up. The professor says "Don’t bother. If it were really there, someone would have picked it up already."

(The joke is that markets are supposed to be efficient, so investors can't make any money as everything is "priced in" into any speculative asset already. The professor believes that markets are efficient because that's what his theories says. Meanwhile, investors make money.)

Now, the question to you to think about is: Do you recognize the problem with the thought process of the professor, and notice how this is evident in reality? For extra credit, think of all the bullshit you are surrounded with on a daily basis. I am not only talking about politics. Even in allegedly high-IQ jobs people throw around bullshit phrases like "best practices" in order to justify borderline moronic processes. It's as if every excuse is good enough as long as it lets them avoid using their brain. You think I'm too radical? Read up what has become of the companies that were featured in Peters' In Search of Excellence.

An Extreme Case of Female Attention Seeking

As I have become older, I began realizing that women do incredible things for male attention. Tattoos are an obvious example. Since all women put on make-up and dress nicely, a young attention-hungry woman needs to up her game, so she may get inked. Or she gets hair extensions, a new nose, a boob job, or collagen in her lips. All that is not difficult to grasp. However, I quite recently made a possibly startling realization about an encounter I had many years ago.

I was "hanging out" with a young and very attractive female student, and one fine day she told me that she makes some cash on the side as a webcam girl. The context was quite bizarre to begin with, because when I first undressed her, she asked me whether I recognized her. This sounded plain weird to me, but when you're about to get it on, you are not going to attempt entering a discussion that may only lead to you not getting laid. Talking too much in those situations is also bad because you may end up not wanting to fuck her anymore because she says some complete bullcrap that turns you off.

Female Attention Seeking Behavior vs Suitability for a Relationship

In the current Open Thread, I was asked the following:

Hey Aaron, this is possibly a stupid question, but I wanted to ask. What are your thoughts on women with tattoos being relationship material?  

Several guys, at least in America, think that women with ink are automatically out of the running for anything long-term, or say that if she only has a couple that are small or trendy, it's fine. I'm usually quite fond of girls with tattoos (as long as they're well done), but I don't have as much experience as you do, so I thought I'd get your perspective. 

Do you think tattooed women are unfit to marry or keep as a longterm girlfriend?

Tattoos itself are not necessarily the issue. Instead, ask yourself why women get tattoos, and you will have your answer. In short, women get tattoos in order to send a particular message to their environment. In that regard, it does not really matter how many tattoos she has or how big they are. In fact, I am tempted to say that a middle-class woman with a small "trendy" tattoo located where only her sexual partners can see it is easily as bad as some low-class woman with a tattoo covering most of her body.

The Open Thread: August 2016

Since I get a relatively high number of comments that are tangential to the articles, I'd like to try to move those parts of the conversation to the monthly 'Open Thread'. 
In short, if you think anything you're going to write is "off topic" to the current post, but still related to pickup, women, gender politics and other topics I discuss on this blog, then please leave a comment to the most recent Open Thread, such like this one. Just post below.

Thank you.

Dissecting more bullshit advice from Wall St. Playboys commenters

As a follow-up on my last post, This is why some guys get nowhere, I am going to spend some more time discussing bullshit online. It's about "money making" advice, and you may very well ask why you should bother. However, there are a few good lessons to be learnt, and if not that, then there is hopefully some entertainment value in it.

But before we start, let's ponder the question how you can tell that someone online is full of shit. It's not that difficult as long as you have some knowledge and experience to draw from, and aren't allergic to basic arithmetic. The absolute worst are people who know nothing, form strong opinions, and feel compelled to spread their nonsense all over the internet. I'm sure you can think of an example or two. One only hopes that those people are merely scammers, instead of morons, who take advantage of the plethora of idiots online.

Without further ado, here is another brain-dead comment taken from the post Money Changes Your Life over at Wall Street Playboys. (I think this comment is a parody, but bear with me for a moment.) Here it is: