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The [SCRIPTED] Vault (Dogmatic Social Engineering)

G-Man

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I know this is a personal anecdote and not an article, but I feel it's in the spirit of the thread.

At my cigar club last night, just trying to unwind while looking over a fileshare, and this 27 year old accountant who overshares about his financial situation (proud of his slowlane success) corners me to talk about buying a house:

Him: We're going to buy a house, and I'm trying to explain to my wife that having a mortgage is actually better than paying rent.
Me: Sure
Him: In (Insert city) you can easily find houses for under 300k, and she's a software engineer, and in a couple years I oughtta be able to get a senior staff accountant position, and we already make 6 figures between us, and I have a 770 credit score blah, blah, blah
Me: Well if you're taking home 6 figures and buy something less than 300k, you should be just fine (stand up about to pretend to go take a piss so I can walk away. This dude is such a drag. Seriously, who gave this man a locker?)
Him: Yeah, It should only take us another 6 months to put together the 10% down payment

This dude that has a six figure income and no children, apparently needs a year or more to put together 30k, and is sitting there bragging about his credit score. Bragging about your ability to borrow while having no cash. If that isn't the script I don't know what is.

Scariest detail: Not that long ago I thought exactly like this guy.
 

Yoda

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In light of @MJ DeMarco 's new book, I figured it might be somewhat enlightening to see the SCRIPTED OS in action. Hopefully those of you who read the book don't take it at face value, but apply it to your surroundings. Get to know the world around you. Understand it. Beat the system through calculated bets.

Now, rather than have a lengthy discussion on each item shared by others, I thought it'd be a cool idea for us to simply leave behind pieces to read, videos to watch, etc. and accumulate a vault of where, how and what the SCRIPT is in the most real-to-life ways.

By leaving out the discussion portion, but adding resources to the vault, we can let each person learn and understand on their own terms.

My only regret in starting this thread may be how fast it grows, because we're so surrounded.

See the world around you, objectively, and decide to be vigilant, disciplined, and autonomous.
I'll start: Too poor to retire and too young to die
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Take the #BowWowChallenge!

Bow Wow Caught Lying About His Private Jet and Inspires #BowWowChallenge

C_eH_H8VYAEJdhc.jpg
 

Yoda

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How a pension deal went wrong and cost California taxpayers billions

The calculator on this page maxes at $2M and you can't "retire" before 67.
max.PNG

Should be a fun 11.8 years..........
 

Argue

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Sometimes I think this forum is a dream and I'm dreaming because in the real world, I'm surrounded by sidewalkers and slowlaners everyday. No one in the real world shares the same beliefs as me. One guy I know has a bachelors but he's earning minimum wage, 32, and seeking a city job for the nice 401k and social security benifits. I tried to recommend him the book and he quickly got defensive/ignorant trying to convince me that the book is a scam. I freaking laughed my a$$ off on the inside but thereafter considered not telling him shit anymore bout the fastlane. Because he's been force fed the status quo:

Get a job, trade 5 days for 2, retire old and enjoy your new retirement home.

Like no lie, I feel like I'm the guy from the matrix. This forum is my only sanity lol. One guy I know asked me about how much I got in income taxes and what I did with it. I told him I still have it and I'm stacking it to launch my business and cover expenses. He on the other hand purchased a Honda Accord. But seriously, it's getting crazy, everyday someone comes up to me and tries to convince me to get a better job so I can retire with a good pension. Work hard, work 6 days, and put in over 60 hours so I can have overtime. Then after that, I should spend my money on nice things because YOLO. People get mad that I save checks, donate money to charity, and don't buy the new nikes or go to clubs. And they get mad that I disagree with their perceived notion of fun: going out, leasing new cars, buying the newest IKEA furniture, etc etc.

Sorry for the long post, rant off haha.
 

MidwestLandlord

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The Recession Hurt Americans' Retirement Accounts More Than Anybody Knew

I thought this article was interesting because not only does it point out how following the script can lead to disaster (the 2008 recession), it briefly unveils the lies (buy more stocks!), but then defends the script by promoting a government required employer sponsored retirement fund with guaranteed returns (as if that's a thing)

And at 3% returns!!! (don't spend it all in one place)

The script DOES NOT WORK, so let's get other people to pay for it? That's just more of the same script!

(pointing out the script, not the politics, so no political crap please)
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Studies show that people making 40k/yr are just as happy as those who make 150k/yr

Such studies are to soothe the egos of those who need an excuse not to improve their financial situation.

Even if we give them their little crutch, follow up with this question...

OK, since money doesn't buy happiness, would you rather be miserable in bed on 1000 thread count sheets overlooking the ocean, or would you rather be miserable in a rat infested apartment which sits next the steel mill?
 

SquatchMan

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does the author knowingly lead the sheep astray or does she think sheep will be sheep and is genuinely trying to help them within their slowlane bubble?

You can not lead people astray if they have always been on the same path.

The entrepreneurs. The creators. The leaders. We are the ones that have been led astray.

I prefer the challenge, and reward, of taking the road less taken.

Other people don't and that's fine. We need employees.
 

Red

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College Degree = $10hr job!

That's complete & utter bullshit!

Mine was worth $12/hr.

In 2000.


*sigh

Unfortunately, I feel like this isn't new news... just more people realize it now. I remember feeling so betrayed, lied to.... like I was slapped in the face in trying to reach for everything I was promised... it's part of what spurned my entrepreneurial endeavors. I just wasn't having this $12/hr bullshit. The game wasn't going to change for me so I had to change the way I played.
 
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Choate

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Girl I was hanging out with last night, we've been seeing each other for about 8 months.

"I'm getting a $5,000 scholarship to do x and y... I was thinking about investing $1,000 of it in the stock market"

Then a 10 minute spiel about a 401k, etc etc.

"I mean we're going to be automatically working until we're 70 so you might as well have as much fun as possible while you can. No point in working too hard"

And on trying to explain the concept of "F*ck you" money... just couldn't get it through to her. "Well even if you're retired at 30, you'll just die early because your brain won't be active because you won't be working." or "Well you can't just do nothing all day" blah blah blah.

The funny thing is she goes to what is probably the #1 school for entrepreneurship in the country. Her dad is boss of a few companies. "But he still has to take calls on vacation.. for example last time we went on vacation he was taking calls for the first two days."

I'd rather be working remotely while on vacation with the family, even if I had to do a 12 hour day or two during part of the vacation, because you still have that freedom. Apparently that couldn't click with her, as if the alternative of working in a cubicle for 50 weeks and having 2 weeks paid vacation is any better.
 

G-Man

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amp0193

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This past weekend, I was painfully reminded of the SCRIPT.

Talk about an underhanded and stealthy way of trying to force the SCRIPT on someone. It took me a day or two to release the anger from that thought.

Same happened to me this weekend, except it was the ol' mother-in-law.

She will never speak a word to me about my businesses. Good, bad, anything. It's like they don't exist. Dunno why, I've been running one for almost 3 years and am getting a new one off the ground.

However, when I leave the house to go play with the kid, she will tell my wife all the reasons she thinks my next business is a bad idea. And my wife has zero involvement in anything that I do, and she just says "uhh... why don't you just talk to him about it, I don't really know anything."

What I want to say is that her family-run niche magazine is a dying business model and a bad idea... but I guess advice isn't allowed to go two ways! I think she thinks she is similar to me because she has a "small business".

I THRIVE on this kind of negativity though. All my life, when people have told me "you can't do X" it just burns me inside to prove them wrong. And it's immensely satisfying when I do.
 

Yoda

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Wouldn't a collection of real life script-bucking be more productive? The ways to fail are unlimited, the ways to succeed are few.

The idea is learning what it is, first, hence the...

enlightening to see the SCRIPTED OS in action

How can you fight the dark side if you can't recognize the dark side?

Why would @MJ DeMarco commit the first few sections to recognition if it was non-important?

A child identifies his colors by seeing them over and over. Only then does he choose a favorite color.
 

The-J

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Saw a post on Reddit saying something like "I believe that every rich person has intentionally F*cked someone over to get to where they are." 20 something upvotes.

Hm. Alright. How's that belief workin out for ya?

Hating the wealthy is a BIG part of the script. Keeps people further away from real life, stuck in their bubble.
 

MJ DeMarco

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We have lost our minds in our society where we measure success by stupid and backwards criteria.

Yup, and success is vilified and victimhood is celebrated.

Heck, even being morbidly obese is now celebrated, just as long as you're proud of being morbidly obese.

Wow, you're so edgy that you're body proud! You go girl!

Yea, I don't care if you want to live your life at 300 lbs and you're proud of your undisciplined diet of carbohydrates -- whatever makes you happy -- just don't ask me to pay for your healthcare and your lifetime EBT card because you Ben-and-Jerried yourself into a wheelchair.
 
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G-Man

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Is My Car An Asset Or A Liability?

Your car is an asset. Evidence: It generates no income and costs money to operate.

Thought of this mythology yesterday after finding out the Camry I paid $4k for 2 years ago needs a $5k engine replacement. :thumbsup:
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Thread marked NOTABLE!

More SCRIPTED goulash straight from Dictionary.com! (Screenshot grabbed from the INSIDE)

Screen Shot 2017-05-23 at 8.46.45 AM.png
 

JourneyToAbundance

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20 companies offering great job security - I need to stop reading these articles

I'm halfway through Unscripted and the section on momentum paralysis in Chapter 26 is one of my most difficult delusions to re-wire - it's my kryptonite

"The greater our emotional attachments are — years of schooling, training, residency — the harder abandonment becomes, hence not choosing what’s best for the future but instead desiring to not see your past investment wasted.... Momentum paralysis keeps you chained to your past while wasting away your future. This is important for new entrepreneurs, because multiple failures precedes success"

This is where the SCRIPT has me by the balls. I keep on replaying the successes in my 17 year career as a project manager. I re-live the great successes, the pay increases early on in my career, the industry certifications that I've completed ten years ago. Part of me want to stick around for that 25 year work anniversary celebration because it's a "celebrated milestone." I need to change my narrative and the story I tell myself but my emotions are getting in the way. Trying to edit the movie playing in my head is extremely difficult.
 
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G-Man

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SEC charges brokers with scamming retirement-age investors out of $40M

Ah yes, the best game in town is selling the game, not playing it...

I'm trying to be a more positive sumbitch these days, so I'll interject. Yeah, these shenanigans are still the biggest game in town, but:

@SteveO will donate his time to help me think through real estate.

@Vigilante, @JustAskBenWhy @ChickenHawk and @JScott will donate time to help people with authorship.

@amp0193 @JAJT @Scot @Yoda will donate the time to let us learn from their experiences launching products.

@SinisterLex @Fox and @jpanarra will log the travails of the freelancer.

There's another script to be had. Thanks, folks.
 

MJ DeMarco

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This probably needs its own thread.

But when someone asks why I don't dare watch these a$$-clowns, now I have an easy to show video.

Folks you aren't getting the news, you're getting an agenda.


Looks like someone's a little worried you aren't getting their preferred narrative.
 

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Sometimes I think this forum is a dream and I'm dreaming because in the real world, I'm surrounded by sidewalkers and slowlaners everyday. No one in the real world shares the same beliefs as me. One guy I know has a bachelors but he's earning minimum wage, 32, and seeking a city job for the nice 401k and social security benifits. I tried to recommend him the book and he quickly got defensive/ignorant trying to convince me that the book is a scam. I freaking laughed my a$$ off on the inside but thereafter considered not telling him shit anymore bout the fastlane. Because he's been force fed the status quo:

Get a job, trade 5 days for 2, retire old and enjoy your new retirement home.

Like no lie, I feel like I'm the guy from the matrix. This forum is my only sanity lol. One guy I know asked me about how much I got in income taxes and what I did with it. I told him I still have it and I'm stacking it to launch my business and cover expenses. He on the other hand purchased a Honda Accord. But seriously, it's getting crazy, everyday someone comes up to me and tries to convince me to get a better job so I can retire with a good pension. Work hard, work 6 days, and put in over 60 hours so I can have overtime. Then after that, I should spend my money on nice things because YOLO. People get mad that I save checks, donate money to charity, and don't buy the new nikes or go to clubs. And they get mad that I disagree with their perceived notion of fun: going out, leasing new cars, buying the newest IKEA furniture, etc etc.

Sorry for the long post, rant off haha.
It's surprising how this guy wouldn't see the results of his path and realize that it's not everything he was told it is.

On the flip side it's amazing how continuous indoctrination can forever brainwash multitudes into a false reality. Jocko Willink had a Vietnam vet on his podcast the other day who was a POW for 6 years.
He had an excerpt in his book where he noticed that the only advertising of any kind that he ever saw in the country was propaganda. Everything was about the state and that they are all apart of a beautiful system.
The POW, Charlie Plumb went on to say he felt more sorry for his captors because he knew that at some point he would leave his cell but they were all doomed to the cell of their country's border. Decades later he met a vietnamese woman at a park who happened to be in Hanoi during the war as they spoke about his experience she refused to believe the actual treatment of POW's because the Vietcong had systematically showed in videos and told citizens that they were able to play volleyball and ping pong etc. being treated with the utmost decency.

Unfortunately the lie in this country with the "American Dream" now being college, good grades, great income and the stock market and eventually wealth is just as strong of an indoctrination and people who have heard it strong enough since a young age refuse to think a different reality even is possible. The SCRIPT is indeed alive and well.
 
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MetalGear

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This past weekend, I was painfully reminded of the SCRIPT.
  • I saw a Facebook message from an Aunt that is really just extended family.
  • She sent me an article about a businessman that died from working too much and not sleeping enough.
  • This person also psychologically damaged me for a couple of years by saying:
    • "You should get married soon, you are in your late 20s now. If you don't your babies will come out with disabilities or deformed".
  • Who says that? Why would I start a family that I can't take care of? What a b!7c\-\
Talk about an underhanded and stealthy way of trying to force the SCRIPT on someone. It took me a day or two to release the anger from that thought.
I will not hang around these people anymore. Only you ladies and gentlemen understand me. :( Letting go of these relationships suck.

I did not even realize that some of my biggest detractors are family and friends until years later...it all clicked when I read UNSCRIPTED .

@MJ DeMarco basically described my life and the obstacles I'm encountering perfectly...the book is timeless and universal.

Rant over,
MG
 
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G-Man

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Here ya go: Snowflake training for your future employees who can't take criticism. From a major SEC college.

This one is particularly interesting:
"If you feel unduly stressed by a grade for any material... email the instructor what grade you think is appropriate and it will be so changed."

This is incredibly value in the real world.

If you think your $28K salary is unduly stressing, no worries, tell your boss you're worth $250K/year and it will be so changed.

WTF is happening to our universities?


UGAStressReduction.JPG

I was a business major in an SEC university. I remember a professor in a finance class telling a girl who couldn't answer the problem on the board (from homework). "Look, if this is too tough for you, go downstairs and change your major to marketing or some bullshit". He literally waited in silence while she collected her things, then had to awkwardly walk over everyone from her position in the middle of the row and leave the room.

I'm guessing he'll be out of a job soon.

Same guy, when we had an exam with a total of 8 problems on it, all of which were very difficult, this kid was pissed the professor didn't give partial credit. You either got the problem all right or all wrong.

Student: But I got 95% of the math right, and just ended up with the wrong answer.
Professor: Getting the right answer is what matters when you're responsible for someone else's money.
Student: But that's not fair, there's only 8 questions. You have to give partial credit.
Professor: Not fair is telling someone you lost their money, then giving the excuse that you got "95% of the math right"
 
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G-Man

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Sorry, but I think he should have been out of a job that very day! He's providing a service for which that girl paid. What a lousy service provider.

It might not have been super clear from the way I told the story, but the problem she couldn't answer was from the homework, which she clearly hadn't done. He probably went Bobby Knight when he should have gone John Wooden, but I'll take an a**hole with standards over this d-bag that lets people whine their way into a good grade.

Here's why: He's a paid service provider, but she isn't the only customer in the room. There are 50 other customers. The degree that they worked and paid for becomes worth less in the marketplace if employers know your university has lax standards.

This is exactly why 4 year degrees are essentially worthless in the marketplace these days. Last year, we hired a kid with a 4 year degree from a reputable CA university. It's a good school, and when you see a decent GPA on a resume, you assume basic skills. The kid was useless. Not a bad person. Very pleasant. Still, totally useless. Why do I call him useless? Not because he didn't know anything, but because in addition to not knowing anything, he didn't feel he should have to work to learn. That diploma from a reputable university made him feel validated in a way that he hadn't earned. /rant over.
 
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OldFaithful

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that first article sad af though... but what did the chick do the first 55 years before being so desperate for money... ????
The answer is right there in the article:
"having never done much long-term financial planning"
"in 2008, as the U.S. economy spasmed, she lost her home" (aka bad debt)
"She owes $50,000 on her credit cards."

Like you @luniac, I don't understand why people do this to themselves.
 
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