rant · moment 4 of 10
Hucksters, MIT Kids in an Uber, and the DaVinci Code Grift
from Thoughtless Animal · #42
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minRay joins the conversation as they riff on the Brazilian kid being a savvy huckster, compare him to The Wire's Marlo and Barksdale, then Tim tells a long story about sharing an Uber Pool with two silent MIT/CIA-type kids while eating pastries from Bova's, before returning to secret societies and the futility of finding a real occult expert.
- 13:57Kid wrote alien obsession code all over his walls, disappeared, claims he has 14 books that will change humanity.
- 14:32Tim realizes the whole thing is fraud after uncovering the layers, but finds that even better than the original mystery.
- 15:22Tim calls it a great stunt—basically a hoax to sell a book, comparing it to selling a Slap Chop.
- 15:58Either the kid had a psychological snap or he's a huckster, and Tim offers to monetize his situation with an Instagram strategy.
- 16:40Guys in Rio are already setting up websites pretending to be him and selling stuff under his name.
- 17:19These hucksters could be legit businessmen if they wanted to, like Marlowe and Barksdale from The Wire could have been great legitimate operators.
- 17:49Tim argues the point of life is to get over on someone; anyone can live legit, but the working man is a sucker.
- 18:21The Da Vinci Code grift works the same way—people invent mythology around something that doesn't exist.