When you favor or oppose an action for reasons that don’t align 100% with Team A or Team B, it’s much harder to maintain your own opinion.
I had this trouble with bitcoin. I oppose it for solid experience-based reasons. I was a bookkeeper for years, so I know how real ledgers work. Bitcoin is not a ledger. I’ve read Satoshi’s C++ code and understand it thoroughly because it resembles my C++ code. I can see exactly what the product does. It’s not money or value or a storable asset, it’s just a goddamn LIST. I can also read the obvious Deepstate clues in the initial adoption of bitcoin and its merger with Blackrock.
The pro-bitcoiners worship a completely false ILLUSION about the product, not the product itself. BUT their reasons for WANTING the illusion are in line with my views of the world. They want bitcoin because they think it creates independence from the bankers and spies and warriors of Deepstate.
The anti-bitcoiners hate it for valid reasons, BUT their overall approach to life is abhorrent to me. They love Deepstate, love the media, love war, love hedge funds, and hate Russia.
Emotionally, the pros favored bitcoin because they favored me. The antis opposed bitcoin because they hated me. I needed to disconnect the product from the irresistible pull of the positive-negative emotional gradient.
I’m finding the same disconnect in the current Elon/Trump crashing of the federal government.
The government is an infinitely more complex** product than bitcoin, with good and bad and trivial parts. Again I judge from experience. In 1969 the government tried to draft me to fight a pointless destructive war, and then jailed me for owning the wrong type of leafy plant, while pointedly NOT arresting the man who sold me the wrong type of leafy plant. In my adult years I had good and respectful experiences with the IRS and other agencies. Now that I’m old, I see that Social Security and Medicare are far more effective and honest than banks and insurers. So I hate war and Deepstate (which is mostly finance), and appreciate IRS and SS.
Elon is eliminating exactly the helpful parts and strengthening Deepstate and war.
Most online anti-Trumpers are defending war on Russia, defending USAID and CLIMATE EMERGENCY. They love the bad parts of the government, WHICH ARE THE SAME PARTS ELON LOVES. They may also like Social Security and the Post Office, but they aren’t talking about those things.
Most online pro-Trumpers love war and spying and hate the useful parts of government. They love what Elon is doing for accurate reasons.
Moral of the story: If you want to sell, follow the rules of selling.
The rules haven’t changed for thousands of years because humans haven’t changed. The first proper textbook is Paul’s letters in the New Testament. Later writers say the same thing, from Dale Carnegie to Duane Jones to the car sales films of the 50s.
1. Know your product accurately and honestly. Know what it solves, what it doesn’t solve.
2. Know your customer. Know which problems he wants to solve, what makes him feel proud, what makes him feel ashamed.
3. Talk about the relationship of THIS PRODUCT with THIS CUSTOMER. Don’t talk about ANYTHING ELSE. Don’t aggravate the customer by insulting him or condescending to him or talking about subjects unrelated to the problems YOUR PRODUCT can solve FOR HIM.
Most modern persuaders break the rules, especially the last one.
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** Irrelevant sidenote. The trivial simplicity of bitcoin isn’t obvious to a non-programmer who only listens to the advocates on both sides. A working programmer turns out a product of similar size and complexity every few days. Asking a programmer to believe that THIS program is The Ultimate Replacement For All Economic Systems is like asking a carpenter to believe that THIS staircase is The Ultimate Replacement For All The Buildings In The World.
Polistra's Mill 