It’s been a long time since I last published a blog post. Recently, a sudden insight struck me about what might be the most common form of art in human society: the scam. I feel compelled to write down my thoughts.
Definition of a Scam
I asked GPT for a quick definition of a scam. Here’s what it gave me: “A scam is an act of deception, concealment, forgery, or misdirection that induces someone to make decisions against their own interests and in favor of the scammer, resulting in economic or other losses for the victim.” So, the core of a scam lies in deception, and the core of deception is information asymmetry. In the narrow sense, information asymmetry means that “in a transaction, one party has more or better information than the other party, who either lacks or cannot access this information. This asymmetry can lead to unfair transactions because the informed party can exploit it for undue gain.” Moreover, deception always involves intentionality — without a subjective intent to deceive, there is no scam. Another key element is loss: if the victim does not suffer any actual loss, it cannot truly be called a scam.
The Origin of Scams
Biologically speaking, humans, as animals, cannot escape their animal nature. Two things define that nature: the finiteness of life and the drive to maximize individual benefit for survival. Within these few short decades we have on this planet, the way to maximize one’s interests is by entering or weaving a large enough Ponzi scheme — climbing upward until one becomes part of the rent-seeking class within the scam. The higher up you are, the more severely you exploit and drain those below you. This is why pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing persist: they perfectly align with human instincts.
Physics offers another angle that reinforces this view. If we regard humanity as a closed system, then according to the law of entropy increase, as the number of micro-particles (individuals) in the system grows, entropy inevitably increases. Entropy represents the system’s level of disorder. Therefore, to keep this human system running, the activity level of each “particle” must be constrained. For molecules, energy determines their activity; for humans, wealth largely determines their “activity” in society. As Schrödinger said: “Life feeds on negative entropy.” Thus, for the system to function, wealth must be periodically destroyed — for example, through war — or, in peacetime, if it cannot be destroyed, it must flow toward the few. This slows the system’s rate of entropy increase. For each individual, the optimal survival strategy is to decrease one’s own entropy while increasing that of others. This is wealth transfer — and scams are one of the primary mechanisms.
In this way, scams arise naturally, in tune with human instincts.
The Evolution of Scams
It’s fair to say that the forms of scams have become more varied and sophisticated as humanity has evolved.
From ancient hunting traps to the Trojan Horse, from The Art of War to national ideologies, the forms keep upgrading, the content grows more complex, and the illusions become ever more dazzling.
A stable social order inevitably contains stable scams — only then can wealth steadily concentrate in fewer hands over time.
There has never been true “win-win” in this world. Human society is, at its core, a zero-sum game: for some to gain, others must lose, though those losses can be repackaged as vague, far-off promises — a kind of long-term contract that never matures. Cooperation is an illusion; deception is reality. The simplest way to solve today’s problems is to distribute benefits to people now and push greater, more difficult problems onto future generations. In this sense, human civilization is built on a never-ending series of Ponzi schemes. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
The Endgame of a Scam
From the definition, we know a scam’s essence is the creation of an information-asymmetric setup. The schemer must understand the overall design. But information flows — it will always find channels to spread. The very fact that information exists creates asymmetry, which makes it valuable to whoever possesses it. But realizing that value depends on spreading it: the holder generates an aura of scarcity, and others, seeking to gain that scarcity, exchange value to obtain the information. Once that scarcity is gone, the information loses its value. Thus, every scam eventually devolves into a shared group consensus. When the older generation dies off without passing that consensus on, their descendants fall back into an information-disadvantaged position — nature’s elimination in action.
How to Break the Scam
Narrowly speaking, whether something counts as a scam often hinges on whether an individual, over time, concludes they suffered a loss. Time, therefore, is the greatest enemy of any scam. In other words, time tests all truths. And since every so-called “truth” changes with time, it means all truths are scams to varying degrees. As the saying goes: “If you let things cool, they resolve.” When you suspect you’re in a scam, take a breath. Study the context, the players, and their incentives. Spend time engaging with those in the game. Gather feedback. It will eventually reveal itself.
Once you see the board clearly, the next step is to join the game. As Soros put it, “The financial history of the world is a history of illusions and lies. To make money, you must understand the illusion, participate in it, and exit before the illusion is widely recognized.” This perfectly matches the logic of how scams arise. As long as human society develops, Ponzi schemes will not disappear. Latecomers must pay their dues to get a return. Only by accepting this can one maximize individual gain.
Of course, in my view, this is still not the ultimate answer — because we often overlook the most crucial element of a scam: the intent to deceive. If you realize you’re inside a scam, must survive, yet wish to avoid becoming part of its machinery, the best approach is to never harbor the subjective intent to deceive — while still benefiting from the effect. In other words, self-deception. Or as I’d put it: the deadliest scams are those with no conscious intent to deceive. For example, if a Japanese soldier during WWII truly believed he was helping build the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” he would not feel the horror of his massacres. Likewise, making the scam of the nation-state legitimate is a masterstroke by those who run it: if you never realize that your lifetime of sacrifice for your country merely made you a nameless cog — a trivial line item in someone else’s wealth transfer — you won’t feel the pain. You’ll call it “a life spent chasing dreams.”
Moreover, as I mentioned, human society is inherently built on Ponzi schemes. So you cannot avoid making choices within scams. When you must choose which scam to join, one valuable rule of thumb is: pick the largest, most complex scam you cannot yet comprehend. A larger victim pool means a larger pool of benefits to divide. A more sophisticated scam means it is better designed, harder to expose, and likely to last longer.
Postscript
I call this piece The Nihilist’s Sunflower Manual.