You are who you hang out with James
James Altucher writes a fairly well known blog. I’m not posting a link to his blog, google his name if you are that interested. I followed Altucher’s blog for some time. I’ve recommended it to some people in the past. Much of what he speaks about in his blog I’ve found quite useful. I’ve adopted his ‘ten ideas a day’ exercise for some time. It’s a very useful practice.
Sadly, a little while back I shifted my stance on the usefulness of Altucher’s work. This was for two reasons. Firstly, the quality of his work sharply diminished with a number of his posts amounting to little more than a ramble. The real deal breaker though was when he started to talk up Tucker Max.
Tucker Max is an embarrassment to the human race. Once again I’m not going to post a link to his website. His ‘work’ can be easily found with a little research. To surmise his contribution to humanity, Max has published a couple of books which detail some of his sordid life experiences. He made a movie which received very poor reviews.
Max’s work has been labeled ‘fratire’. Apparently Max distances himself from the term as he was never actually a member of a fraternity. His work centers on the telling of stories, most of which are degrading. The humour is juvenile. His work is considered offensive by many. Considering its content it’s very difficult to argue that it isn’t quite deeply sexist.
Now I’m a huge fan of juvenile humour. But I’m not a fan of Max. Below are some quotes from Max.
“I actually am a narcissist, very much so. My world revolves around me.”
“I’d rather mainline Drano than listen to another minute of your whore prattle.”
“Your gender is hardwired for whoredom.”
“I don’t like her because she’s a negative fucking bitch, not because she has tits.”
“Fat girls aren’t real people.”
“We can’t all go after the girl with low self-esteem.”
"Get away from me or I’m going to carve a fuck hole in your torso.”
“I want to shoot every one of these bitches.”
I’m not sure how or why James Altucher, who seems like such a reasonable guy, would support this trash. But he has and continues to do so. Max’s work seems incongruent with Altucher’s messages and I think that’s what upsets me the most. If Altucher believes what he is writing, then he should absolutely not be supporting a guy like Tucker Max.
I think it’s likely that James Altucher is not genuine. I think most of his ‘ideas’ aren’t his. I think it’s likely that everything worthwhile in his blog is somebody else’s idea. Sure he should get some credit from representing these ideas but I’m not rating a guy who rates Tucker Max which brings me to the last theme in my post.
It’s been said in the past that you are who you hang out with. This has been said by many people in many different forms. I have no idea who said it first. I’ve believed that you are who you hang out with for some time now. The people in your life really can bring you down, particularly if they are negative or encourage poor behavior in you.
So while it’s important to accept that we all have our own flaws and idiosyncrasies, it’s equally important to distance ourselves from those who would bring us down. From those who treat others poorly. From those whose thoughts and ideas encourage harm to others and lastly to those who would impinge on others human rights.
Lastly I’ll conclude this post with another well-known truism. That people can change. If Tucker Max apologized to those people he’d mistreated in the past and changed his behavior I’d be willing to change my stance on him. Everyone deserves that opportunity.