Crashing planes and decoding millionaires

It’s April 26, 2022. I’m a little late in sending, and the content’s short. Here’s the rundown:

• Crashing planes vs. coming up with a good idea

• Science decodes millionaires

• Numbers, links, and faces

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This guy would rather crash a plane than come up with a good idea

A guy crashed a plane for YouTube views instead rather than trying to make authentic, worthwhile content.

Image: Trevor Jacob/YouTube

This isn’t pretty. But it’s certainly rich.

In the latest episode of “social media was a huge mistake,” a 28-year-old former Olympic snowboarder-turned-YouTube personality named Trevor Jacob appears to have faked a plane crash in order to get attention. The video is here if you want to see it, but, you know, do we really want to give him more views?

In the video, Mr. Jacob abandons his small plane in mid-air, as he says it’s malfunctioned, and jumps out, parachuting to safety. Luckily, strategically placed cameras on the plane catch the action as it slams into the Los Padres National Forest, in California, below.

Good thing it didn’t start another wildfire, right?

So, in effect, man who needs attention trashes national forest for fun and personal gain. Instead of figuring out a way to make creative, engaging content, he decides to wreck his property, and public property, too.

The Federal Aviation Administration revoked his pilot license, which is really all it has the power to do (it can’t prosecute anyone), so right now, we’ll assume that Mr. Jacob is out in that national forest right now, cleaning up plane debris. Because that would be the responsible thing to do.

But we can all be glad that Mr. Jacob just so happen to be wearing a parachute that day, and carrying a selfie stick to film his descent, and that he’s otherwise okay.

I don’t typically bring stupid things like this up, but Mr. Jacob’s little stunt really rubbed me the wrong way. He’s faking an emergency, destroying public land, risking starting a forest fire, killing people or animals, and wasting public resources to clean it all up for him — all for some attention on the internet.

Again, he could’ve tried to make a video about something else — something worthwhile — but instead, we got this. I know this is a petty little rant, but I think we’ve all seen enough of this type of resource-wasting garbage, all in an attempt to “create content” and “stoke engagement” or whatever else.

This guy found it easier to literally crash a plane than come up with a good idea. Instead of doing work, he opted to crash a plane. I repeat: Crashing a plane, for this man, was easier than sitting down, developing a video concept, and executing it.

The next time you’re staring down a deadline, or trying to figure out a way to make ends meet, remember this: At least you’re not crashing a plane in an attempt to take the easy way out.

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Scientists decode self-made millionaires

A “constellation” of personality traits is most prominent among self-made millionaires.

Image: “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”

What does it take to get rich? Easy: Run for Congress, and then engage in insider trading for many years.

Or, you could take what was recently learned in a study published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications that decodes rich people by looking at the personality traits of millionaires and try to put it to use. The researchers from that study found a unique pattern, or constellation, of personality traits among the millionaire class compared to rest of us plebs.

The researchers analyzed wealthy German residents, and found some differences between self-made millionaires, and those who inherited their wealth, too. As for the key personality traits that have helped those self-made wealthy people ascend to their current stations? Here they are:

• High risk tolerance

• Openness

• Extraversion

• Conscientiousness

• Low neuroticism

Here’s a visual from the study:

This unique collection of traits, too, was found more prominently among the self-rich study participants, rather than those who came upon their wealth in other ways. But it makes sense, too; People who are willing to take risks, make the right type of friends (openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness), and who are less neurotic (which the authors define as a “tendency to be worried/nervous”) probably do find more opportunities to make a lot of money.

Of course, this is just one study, and it has its limitations. There could be another study published tomorrow that refutes it. But the findings do make intuitive sense — I’ve known people who’ve made a lot of money, and I’ve known some who were born wealthy. They’re different, in many ways.

As for what we can do with science’s decoding of the rich? Unless you feel like undergoing a personality overhaul just for the chance to make some more money, probably nothing. But it does provide some interesting insight into our personalities and psychological profiles.

Science: What are those guys going to figure out next??

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Numbers, Links, and Faces

• 49%: The percentage of small U.S. businesses increasing wages for workers, as of January. (Bloomberg Quint)

• 4 : Forces that are propelling depression rates among young Americans — social media use, declining social activity, modern parenting strategies, and the fact that the world is in rough shape. (The Atlantic)

• “…Employers have to think of job posts as marketing documents, not internal HR documents”: Outdated and ridiculous job descriptions are costing employers quality candidates. (Protocol)

• Gas, food, parking…: People being asked to return to work in offices after two years of working at home are finding it hard to justify the costs of doing so — who can blame them? (USA Today)

• American climate diaspora: Climate change already has Americans on the move, away from fires, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, and more. Just wait until Phoenix and Las Vegas are no longer habitable! (Wired)

• Frowny Face: The World Bank estimates that the physical damage in Ukraine is at $60 billion and growing. (Reuters)

• Smiley Face: A carjacking victim didn’t have to pay their towing bill — that’s some good news, right??? (WBRZ)