A philosophy-quoting homeless man in China has fled internet fame | Hacker News Reader

A philosophy-quoting homeless man in China has fled internet fame

washingtonpost.com

88 pointsflippyhead28 comments

From my measly perspective, fame suuucks... there's really no upside. Anonymous obscurity seems a better camouflage rather than people getting up in someone's personal business documenting their every move, criticizing their every breath, treating them differently, expecting to impose on their emotional reserves and time, or acting goofy/toadyingly around them. All people put on pants one leg at a time unless they're missing legs or wearing a kilt. ;)

Will Smith's contrary view is that fame is great. You get treated better everywhere and people listen to your mundane opinions on anything. The pain of being ignored or rejected is vastly reduced, whether it's in your personal life, career etc.

I hadn't heard that was his POV. I'm surprised. I've always thought fame would be terrible. You can't walk down the street in peace. You can't shop in peace. You can't eat at a restaurant in peace.

Money seems to have all the benefits of fame and few of the disadvantages. Having $100m in the bank confers all those advantages without being harassed on the street.

Well, with fame, you walk into a fancy restaurant, you get a table. With money, you're still another anonymous schmuck.

I guess if you have that much money you can hire someone to call ahead and say "This man's net worth is this much, and he would like to have a table in half an hour.". Or to be less crass, they can rattle off your impressive CV/portfolio and the restaurant would get the idea.

You never been out for a meal with a rich person huh? Guarantee you a rich person (where rich is $50m+)can get that table faster than the b-list sitcom actor who is in front of her in the queue. She dosnt need a CV, just needs her wallet.

> people listen to your mundane opinions on anything

I would hate that. The only upside is the deluded ego stroke.

I think some people are extroverted enough, and arrogant enough to love this sort of fame. I don't mean this comment to be negative, but I'm not sure how else to describe the trait. Have you ever walked into a room and thought "These hundred or so people should really be listening to me." Maybe not verbatim, but I suspect Will Smith has had that thought in one form or another.

Since HN is titled so heavily towards introverted logical (logical as opposed to emotional) thinkers, it's no surprise that the perspective of a celebrity would be hard for the community to grasp.

Fame is a disfigurement. As the costs of fame increase, how will this effect the distribution of people who seek to do great things? This is probably a much more important question than many things we worry about.

Yeah, the guy probably thought interesting young people would come and have conversations with him after he became famous. Instead, he is just filmed all day on phones by visitors trying to bolster their social media likes with some desirable video footage.

And even if there were a few that would come to talk, they’d almost certainly also be turned off by the thousands filming.

Seeking to do great things is not linked to fame. The public is generally ignorant of every great person alive today, they just see the people who need to be seen because it supports their ventures.

fully agree. People conflate fame with impact. Everyone’s version of impact may be different but having Impact does not necessarily lead to the other.

Consider the case of Howard Thurman, not nearly as famous as Martin Luther king Jr[0], or Nelson Mandela[1]. Yet highly influential on them, and they went on to catalyse massive change.

So his impact if we consider social change, was massive and far outpaced his actual fame.

[0] he mentored Martin Luther King and otherS [1] Mandela came out of prison with a completely different philosophy to when he went in.Mandela appears to have been highly influenced by by his writing while in prison.

So many examples of this. This highly charming piece by a former IAS director goes into this so well: https://library.ias.edu/files/UsefulnessHarpers.pdf

Alternatively, perhaps fame-seeking behaviour helps us identify frauds and hollow-men?

Seeking fame and notoriety is a norm. Our minds are so attached to media these days that most people lose touch with those around them and live in a world of popular personalities. So I'm not sure if this is true, because it's almost like fighting for existence these days when our communities and interpersonal relationships are so weak.

This doc is eye-opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1MqJPHxy6g (although it's over 2 hours and I fell asleep the first time I watched it).

but TL;DW: People are always looking for status, because status means others acknowledge and praise them. And today's celebrity culture means being famous is seemingly a quick way to gain status.

With a better community you'd have friends who like you and acknowledge you because they got to know you and your character.

> With a better community you'd have friends who like you and acknowledge you because they got to know you and your character.

You hit the nail on the head. It's such a simple truth, but we are stuck in a machine now and can't even change things to help us live healthier lives. Great documentary too! Thanks!

You say "machine", makes me think of The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster: https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machi...

Fame is a cost. Some important, meaningful, or even just fun things incur an increased likelihood of accumulating fame, though not all of them. If what you want to do is worth the risk of attracting attention, the tradeoff can be worth it, but I think you're right to say that the cost is growing higher.

I know a similar story of a semi-homeless man also from Chengdu who have been living in a university campus and attending advanced math classes for years. A guy with virtually no possessions except curiosity. It was pre-internet so only locals knew about him. The university even offered him a job in the cafeteria so he could feed himself.

https://outline.com/YdhRj9

Not a word about the content of his philosophy...

The SCMP has:

>In one of these videos, the scavenger was filmed discussing the merits of Liao Fan’s Four Lessons, a Ming dynasty work from the 16th century, and the Analects.

I presume in Chinese

Here's a nice, uplifting film about a philosophy-quoting homeless man from Manchester who flees to London. One of my favourites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_(1993_film)

I'm surprised this piece doesn't mention The Life of Brian:

Followers: "Speak to us master, speak to us!"

Brian: "Go away!"

Follower: "How shall we go away master?"

(59 minutes into the movie)

(Group running)

Forrest Gump: “I’m tired. I think I’m gonna go home”

The followers: “What are we supposed to do?”

"Always look on the bright side of life..."

But my favorite scene is the "Romanes Eunt Domus" scene.

The Life of Brian should be mandatory viewing. Such a masterpiece.

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