every sensitive transition phase of life feels like it comes with a dense array of people trying to scam.
when applying to college, i was ripe to be picked on for sat prep programs, college application services, to be forced into submission by college board to pay a fee for each digital number sent to each school.
in college, i was prime to be recommended ‘tips to get into faang’, mutated r/applyingtocollege now called r/cscareerquestions, hackernews.
leaving college, i’m handed a plethora of life coaches, “making a career pivot” bootcamps, tips on “how to get a boyfriend quick,” certificates to “advance my career.”
predatory subscription services, overpriced fitness classes that promise fast results, extra fees upon fees upon fees of endless predatory fees from aggregators and fintech companies trying to hide another 1%.
complicated health insurance plans that self define a specialized dictionary of nonsensical acronyms. three and four party schemes in credit cards for more parties to share their cut of the pie. smiling painkiller ads to ask a doctor what drug will drug them into happiness.
it’s like we’ve literally designed the world to be more complicated to trick unassuming people into a sale. that we set up a billion booby traps, and we try not fall into any of them.
it’s frustrating how we have to take advantage of people to survive, to be a rat in the world, to be a tiny cat slug trying its hardest to survive to get through life, feeding off the scraps of our so-called socially mobile rags to riches world to make it.
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Hello Nancy!
I've been following your blogs for a minute now! Love your work!
As a former business development professional (at some point selling enterprise cybersecurity to companies like Nike and Starbucks), there is a better way of looking at these things!
You're absolutely right that it sucks there are many many many people out there trying to eek out their tiny fee, but there are also plenty of people out there that believe making money is the byproduct of genuinely helping others.
The system works as intended - but there will be bad actors in every system ankle biting.