Go to the crypto subreddits and look at all the people who laugh at stocks, saying market returns are basically worthless.
So I ignored the stock market, and gravitated to poker. Same shit, different day. Chasing big returns because they're the only kind that would've moved the needle.
I don't think it's that bad or good, just natural, even in a more exuberant-feeling time. Everyone in parallel comments is talking about "it's because they don't think they can get a 9-to-5 and a house like their parents" as if having a steady job and being like your parents was ever an aspirational goal. Parents are boring! Nine to five is boring! Actors, athletes, rock stars, billionaires - that's the real goal. This wasn't created by social media, it wasn't created by 2008, it goes back decades at least.
Picture yourself being 15-20 years old. There are basically zero non-lottery-ticket opportunities available to you to make serious money. Your opportunities to exercise full-on adult agency are still fairly limited. * Your immediate employment opportunities are things like fast food and pizza delivery * You won't have a college degree for years even if you think you'd graduate into a middle-class type of job * Even if you doubled down on your schoolwork, you won't generally be separated that much from the rest of your class. And grades aren't directly translatable into money and popularity, anyway.
It takes money to make money, and you don't have money. Looking for moonshots is a somewhat rational action in that situation - it's the only one with any chance of producing the desired outcome.
It's a big act that needs constant reinforcement via social media.
Our narcissism has reached a fever pitch while the traditional methods of success no longer support the aspirational narrative.
It's no longer work hard, goto college, get a house and family..
Everyone needs to be a motivational / spiritual / business guru with a million followers, "passive income" and a schedule of traveling the world to exotic locales.
That lifestyle is also required now, not in 50 years, so fake it till you make it and bring on the debt / Airbnb / Lyft "sidehustle".
CryptoCurrency is the only lottery ticket left that provides any appearance of hope of covering people's bets and supports the current narratives of unbounded wealth with little to no work.
I'm not exactly sure how stocks have been exposed as bullshit given they've produced above average returns, especially for young people who have gotten in after 2008.
> "A word about humorlessness, since it's bound to come up. People who complain about HN's humorlessness have a point, but not because we're against humor. We like laughing as much as anyone. It's because empirically, a culture of humor means a flood of lame humor, and HN's goal is to optimize for signal/noise ratio. As with any optimization, there are inevitably tradeoffs."