Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Crediting the Sucker Filter
The Sucker Filter is a wonderful tool for spotting fakery. I've been using it for a while and wishing I could give proper credit for the source. NakedCapitalism sees the Filter in Trump's negotiating techniques, and gives the proper credit.
It was described in a brief 2012 article in Atlantic, based on internal research by Microsoft.
The Filter is meant to gather in the most gullible marks from a random set of cold calls or spam emails. If you think the wildest weirdest nonsense is worth checking out, you're worth cultivating. If you can distinguish sense from nonsense, the scammer doesn't want to waste effort on you.
I'm not sure that it would apply to Trump. The people who need to negotiate with Trump are already tightly filtered and selected. In his main business, the owners of hotels and casinos already know who he is and what he does. In his new hobby of politics, China and Russia and Persia already know who he is and what he does.
Labels: Sucker Filter
¶ 4:42 AM
