Marketing Is Complicity in Consumer Self-Deception

When you're young, you've got two flaws: boredom and the craving for approval. When you're old, you're left with just one: boredom.

Boredom makes you want to waste time—just do nothing—but you feel guilty, so you look for an excuse. Playing video games to learn strategy, watching Japanese adult films to study Japanese culture, going to foot massage parlors to learn emotional intelligence. Yeah, right, we get it.

Getting hooked on Li Jiaqi's live streams isn't really about saving money—it's just boredom. You need something to kill time, so you convince yourself you're hunting deals. In the end, it's not cheap at all; there's a mountain of hidden costs. And getting obsessed with Dong Yuhui's streams—is that really about learning foreign languages? That's bullshit too. The reason it works on you is because you're complicit. You're fooling yourself. That's the premise.

Human nature: bored yet feeling like time isn't enough, anxious yet wasting time anyway. Every day you're lying to yourself—pretending you're working hard, staring at candlestick charts all day, telling yourself you're making money; endlessly browsing chat rooms when you're bored, telling yourself you're looking for opportunities. Even ghosts wouldn't believe that. It's just escaping reality.