Minimalism and recognising scams

Post event notes: See farther down on this page.

Translation: auto translation of this page into Ukrainian

Because those who were most interested in talking about AI [ or as I call it, AS = artificial stupidity, I collected some examples on why I call it that and will show those next time ], we started about minimalism, and after that we got to the issue of how do you know what is the truth, from which we got to the topic of scamming and how to know what is reality.

I had not prepared much in writing, mostly in my head. I placed some comments in the group chat about the topics and a link to the minimalism video. The following is most of what we talked about:

Note that comments in blue are added after the meeting as an addition or clarification.

Minimalism

So minimalism, it is useful? I was reminded of something I did in my youth when watching a little bit of this video: MINIMALISM: Official Netflix Documentary (Entire Film). What I did once per year, I think I started with this when I was about 13 or 14 years old: I put everything that I didn't want to keep any more, into a corner in my room. I think I took a few days to go over everything, which were for example books that I thought were too superficial and anything else that would not be useful to me any more (in my estimation). When I was finished going over everything, I would throw away everything in that corner. It was like a spring cleaning, going over everything. What about just keeping things? What is the effect of getting rid of things that you don't need?

Only one of the attendees knew. A lot of people just don't throw things away because "It might be useful in future, perhaps it can be repaired!". This is an attitude you are more likely to have with little money, so more likely in Ukraine than say in the Netherlands, where people have more money. Costs for everything are a lot higher in NL (energy, water, housing etc.), but after all that, people do have more money to spend than people in Ukraine. But there is a good reason to not keep everything even if you don't have much money. It doesn't just clutters your house, it also clutters your mind. It takes attention. I commented that my sister remarked recently about keeping a lot of stuff and that in contrast her friend throws a lot away that he thinks is not useful. What she said was that there are things she has, but can't find, she doesn't know where they are. So she said that she told him recently about something that she needed: "I know we have it, somewhere, but I don't know where and I am just going to buy it new" :)

So the attendee who knew what the effect was (she also gave some sweets to share with the others), stated: "You feel relief". Yes, that is it. It is as if a burden has lifted from you. It works not just with objects, also with things you are working on, projects, computer programs. I've had this happen with a hard drive crash filled with a lot of ideas, projects (computer programs), these were gone. I was annoyed a bit, but then I felt relief. There was no more need to think about any of it (doing something with it, finishing it etc.), because it is gone...

Reality, truth, scams

We got at some point to reality, how to know what is the truth, how to analyse people. I said that this is about connections. Connections show whether something is true or not. It is similar to axioms in mathematics: Use too many or ones that are bad and you get contradictions at some point, when further using them. It is also true in science for establishing 'truth' (validity of a theory). What that is really about is consistency, i.e. connections. If there is a problem (an inconsistency, a contradiction) which shows up at some point then that shows that there is a problem with the theory.

How to know reality? "What about just looking at a person?", someone asked. Yes, you can actually deduce a lot from face, facial expressions. I mentioned the interview of some psychiatrist with Kitboga (see a previous meeting in which I analysed a bit of that video/interview) and how I knew immediately what he was like and I could predict what he would say. I then read aloud a message which was sent to someone I mentioned in a few meetings, with whom I had interesting experiences, which is a former friend from Kharkov (see also meeting 1). I sent a message to that guy [ as if the message had been sent to me ], to which I received the following reply:

So, what can you deduce from that? One man said it could be a person from Africa. Yes, the surname Deswarte points to that, but names can be just chosen and thus not real. What else can you deduce from this?

First of all: the informal language: "Hi". Instead of for example "Good afternoon", "Good evening", etc.

Secondly: "I am a lawyer known as". This is complete nonsense. Nobody with any education writes like that. A lawyer would write something like "My name is xxx and I am a lawyer working on behalf of yyy". [ Even that is not correct in this case because if he sent me a message then I know what and who he is (it was written in that message), and thus he should not have to state his name nor that he is a lawyer. (except as a letter head in say a pdf or a 'signature' at the end) ]

Thirdly: He writes "if you contact me regarding your donation on behalf of": So, he doesn't know why I wrote him. I said in the meeting that he had not written to me but to my friend. It was a message of a scam type [ I will show the message farther on ], but why did he ask this question? Nobody realised what the possible reason was but it was obviously this: He has multiple scams going on (or he changes scams once the text gets spread around of it and is too obvious as a fake, for example, so that people search for his message text on the internet and find it) and he doesn't know, or he doesn't keep track of, to whom (to which email address, or phone number) he sent which message containing which scam. [ Addition: If he were a real lawyer representing people who reply to messages sent by his clients, then he would not suggest a name, but ask a reference number of a case or some other identifier, such as name of the person he represents. But of course, it is all fake. ]

[ Post meeting addition: This is the scammer's message. Note that to me it is obvious as being fake immediately but there are issues which made my former friend believe it could be real: 1) The desire to believe it could be real, from being in a financially bad situation, and 2) she is a bit too naive, too trusting:

I mentioned scam threads on youtube, which start with something about the video and then mention about now being a good financial situation, then other scam accounts reply asking where he got his financial information, then he names the person and a phone number is usually split over a few messages. As attendees mentioned, this happens on instagram, tok tok etc. I've had happen via telegram that someone contacted me and wrote about doing some work from home. I would just need to put things into a basket, make a screenshot and get money. How is this a scam? I haven't followed up on this, but how can it be real? [ I suspect that either I would be scammed in some way further on, via a payment that I would need to make, for example to receive a payment (a common scam), or the manufacturer or website is being scammed by them with fake interest from buyers that they need to generate. ] One attendee mentioned an interesting scam. She was approached to do something similar, got 150 UAH payment. Later they asked her to pay 200 UAH for other opportunities. Aha, so the first payment is to make her trust them, then they ask for a bit more back to get other opportunities... [ Addition 2025-7-5: and probably don't give anything after that, though perhaps it could be another method such as increasing the amounts that are paid and then more needs to be paid later, to see how much a person can and wants to pay to then take advantage as much as posible at some point ] She didn't do it! Good! :) Having to pay to get something is a common trick with scams, such as inheritance scams: You will get this but first need to pay us for work or effort. Some people say "Just deduct that from the money you will send me" :) And then of course you won't hear anything any more...

An important point in analysing people (to find out the truth, reality) is that people do things for a reason, except people who are insane, then you cannot analyse everything with reason, but generally you can deduce why people do things because there is a reason for whatever they do...

Someone mentioned liking mathematics than she originally liked, but it was for a reason: To be able to better applying reasoning to other topics. This is true, you are forced to reason logically but mathematics is taught in a non optimal manner like all subjects in school. I mentioned what I wanted to teach in a school but the people at that school were absolutely not interested in that: Proper analysis, as part of teaching physics, but you can apply that everyhwere, for all topics in school, for everything in life. And so we got to a few other topics:

So I told the story that I had told already in the first meeting (but with other attendees) of seeing a Rolls Royce in Kremenchuk in 2023 while riding on the bus near the centre. When I told that to my lawyer (whom I hired to obtain a residence permit) in Lviv, she mentioned that she worked with a guy who has rich parents who have a building company. He bought a Rolls Royce and then not long later he sold it. Why did he sell it? What could the reason be?

The thoughts expressed were the same as in meeting 1: One of them is this: Someone guessed that it cost too much (from breaking down for example on the bad roads). No! Money is not a problem! What else could it be? Nobody guessed but it was that this car is just impractical in Lviv. It is too big for the narrow streets, and I would say you probably can't enjoy even the good ride on the cobble stone roads.

Something else we talked about: Different behaviour of men and women, and how we deal with family in the Netherlands and Ukraine:

I told about my trip to the Carpathians and that I took part in some gatherings at the graveyard but also dinners with family of my friend (not just parents but uncles, aunts, grandparents etc.). Family gatherings seem much more important in Ukraine than in the Netherlands. But you may not like everyone in a family, what then?

We also talked about women being different than men in that women are more oppressive by virtue of being more social: They prefer compromise rather than that people do not agree and walk away, for example. Another example is in dealing with friends. Women can and often do say, before or just after marriage, that her husband has to end the friendship with some of his friends because she doesn't like them, she may say that they have a bad influence, or for some other reason.

Further I told the story of a crazy/anti-social aunt. She visited my dad who was in the hospital. She then felt that he didn't have enough clothes there, bought a sweater, then brought the bill for that (and for travel expenses etc.!) to my mother! This is insane. First of all he didn't need any clothes, secondly if he needed anything she could have bought it for him, she had plenty of money. My mother didn't want to deal with her, I paid her but never forgot and she wasn't the only nutter in the family, I took care of her and all the other nutjobs in my family a few years later... I never saw any of them again. Good! (I said in the meeting: If I were married and my wife said: "I don't want to ever see those people again", then I would say: "I agree!" :) ) [ I said goodbye indirectly to all aunts and uncles, by my actions, which really annoyed some of them, especially the most anti-social of them, good! ] Someone said that here in Ukraine people tend to still deal with relatives they don't like, well, I don't! :)

Post meeting notes:

I mentioned that I may go on a trip to NL with a friend, but not sure yet when... The dates for coming meetings depend on this.

Goncharenko centre 2025-6-29: Minimalism and recognising scams

Minimalism and recognising scams

Minimalism

Reality, truth, scams

Post meeting notes: