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Comment by api | Hacker News Reader

How can people like this fall for the honey trap, an intelligence trick as old as civilization. Probably older. Hominid tribes probably did this on the African Savannah 100k+ years ago.

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Human impulses are what they are. But that said, it’s a clear argument for why this level of power and control shouldn’t be concentrated in one person: they’re too fallible.

I look at Gates, post-divorce Bezos and Musk and see a lot of insecurities projecting outwards. The isolated nerd becomes the uber-CEO and has more money and power than people can even comprehend.

> has more money and power than people can even comprehend.

Musk spent $445 million in Texas, and Talireco still won. Hillary outspent Trump 3:1 and lost. Harris outspent Trump 2:1 and lost. Bloomberg's expensive campaign sank without a trace.

The notion that money buys elections doesn't hold up well.

Money can get one's message out. But if the voters don't like it, they won't vote for it.

I didn’t even mention elections did I?

But for what it’s worth I think your analysis needs more depth. Harris outspent Trump but how much did Republican/Democrat aligned organisations spend? What about all the local news stations that have been bought up and now play biased pieces dictated from out of market? etc etc. It’s an area you could write a dissertation on and I’m sure many have.

Money can't outright buy a result, but it does tend to move the needle. The same money Musk spent in 2026 probably would have changed the outcome of 2020. 2026 just had too big of a swing for the ads to make a difference.

It can definitely tilt the scales though, it doesn't need to be 100% effective (it won't ever be) to be unfair.

Strategies don't stop being effective just because they were first employed many years ago.

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln.

Not spies, but it is not surprising: Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, Tiger Woods, etc.

Note: Watch Lioness season 3, premise is spy honeypotting: coincidence it came out just before this scandal

Are you asking how an extremely powerful but aging heterosexual man was tricked by an attractive young woman using her sexuality and good looks?

because we are still monkeys with iPhones

Yeah it was a rhetorical question.

I think you answered your own question.

I do have a feeling that they are still, after all those years, just shy, creepy nerds, but with money. See Bezos' new wife, or Gates with the russian prostitutes (I'm not even going to bring up Musk).

They are all just deeply psychologically damaged people with a lot of money to cover all that up.

Add to that the level of constant temptation coming from every way, women literally throwing themselves at them either for their own gain, or as in this example for their country.

I don't think we should be feeling pity for them, but they live in a very, very, VERY different world than the normal person.

Yeah, however they started I think having billions really does a number on the vast majority of people - from a mental health POV it's not a good idea, let alone for the rest of society.

Same thing happens with fame (celebrities) and huge awards (Nobel prize disease).

Whom the gods wish to destroy…

I like this sort of analysis because it often sounds like it came from a shy, creepy nerd, but without money

A shy, creepy nerd without money is quite a bit less dangerous though.

Agreed, especially for those who aren’t from money but hit the jackpot very young with a tech IPO.

I’m learning that Jensen Huang was middle class with a school teacher as a mother. Bezos was also a son of a teacher and his father was a unicyclist (!)

These guys hit it big and you just get the impression that they finally get to cash in on all those adolescent dreams of hot girls and gaudy extravaganza we all eventually grew out of

Grew out of or gave up on?

You know, at some point I just lost interest in the Lamborghini I used to have a poster of as an 8 year old boy

Looking around Silicon Valley I see many people did not and good for them. My tastes changed as I grew up. I still know full grown adults who eat chicken nuggets and that’s not for me either

But the money trap here is the wife and the marriage, not the affair. If for example you swap him with Elon Musk, no claimant would get much of anything, because he is wise to such money traps.

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