How to Win Friends and Hustle People

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/style/superiority-burger-ashwin-deshmukh.html

by makerdiety • 2 years ago

44 22 2 years ago

gwern• 2 years ago

Although the journalist will never say so unless he publicly announces a formal diagnosis, this sounds like bipolar disorder at work.

He's a smart charming hardworking entrepreneur expert at marketing who is eager to take risks (which is such a 'type' https://gwern.net/doc/psychiatry/bipolar/energy/index that you should already be thinking 'bipolar?'); but he is not gaslighting people to deny his scams or immune to shame and feels bad about the fraud & scamming people, so it's not narcissism or psychopathy.

The rather pointed but otherwise unexplained mentions of his lack of showering & smelling is a dogwhistle: the smelling is from the manic cycles where he stops bothering with such wastes of time meant for the little people; other manic cycle symptoms like sleeplessness would generally go unnoticed in the normal frenetic lifestyle of a up-all-night nightlife promoter (which of course is a great way to get the sleeplessness that would often trigger a manic cycle in the first place). And then when he disappears for a while or ghosts people, those are the depressive cycles.

romeros2• 2 years ago

It could also be a personality type. Most Entrepreneurs are eager to take risks. Some have ADHD/Dyslexia and many others just have the personality. Doesn't have to mean Bipolar Disorder.

Edited BPD to Bipolar

reaperman2• 2 years ago

BPD is most often used for "Borderline Personality Disorder" which is very different from Bipolar Disorder.

mp05• 2 years ago

Agreed. There are "strains" of ADHD that show some remarkable similarities to bipolar disorder that must be sussed out by a really skilled professional. My source on this is personal experience.

gumby2• 2 years ago

Most Entrepreneurs are eager to take risks.

That's a romantic myth of the public imagination.

The most successful ones avoid risk as much as possible.

Zetobal• 2 years ago

Stop diagnosing people on the internet especially with a complex sickness like bipolar. I am bipolar and your reasoning shows that you only have coffee table knowledge.

Edit: HN really is going to shit.

endofreach• 2 years ago

In general i think it's always better to have people express their opinions (may it be a wrong diagnosis) and be corrected. Especially on the internet, so people can learn.

zopa• 2 years ago

Counterpoint from someone better informed about bipolar would be interesting and valuable. That said, it’s a discussion of an article asking “why is this guy like this?” One potential partial explanation is a mental health condition. Certainly it crosses my mind any time there’s a consistent and self-destructive pattern of behavior that it’s not clear the person involved can control.

I don’t know what’s served by pretending otherwise. If mental health challenges are real and important, and they are, then they’ll have observable effects outside a doctor’s office, and we should be able to talk about that.

kdmccormick• 2 years ago

If it's bipolar, then it's bipolar plus a lack of regard for other human beings.

Plenty of us are bipolar, do regrettable things when we're manic, and then own up to them and pay what's due when we're not manic.

resolutebat• 2 years ago

These people, who are numerous, embarrassed and still finding one another, will say that Ashwin Deshmukh is a thief.

Not a line you expect to see in the NYT. But looks like they've amassed enough evidence to stand up in court, and of course the fact that Deshmukh clearly has no money helps.

gumby2• 2 years ago

The Times is quoting others so bears no risk in reporting it, especially when they say there are numerous such people.

buescher• 2 years ago

For the really damming stuff, they either claim they have documentation or imply it exists. Still, it’s barely news and a defamation lawsuit would be a nuisance at least, right? I wonder who he ripped off that has pull at the Times.

1vuio0pswjnm7• 2 years ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20240314145312if_/https://www.ny...

How to Win Friends and Hustle People

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