A man mails out 30,000 letters to people he got from a commercial mailing list of names of possible investors (he hopes none of them know one another).

All the letters begin: "I want to introduce myself. I'm Johnson D. Beddnaylz, professional investment advisor. I have a perfect ability to predict market movements, and I want to demonstrate this to you so that you'll have the confidence to let your fortune grow under my stewardship."

Then, 10,000 of the letters say "stock for Ramjac Corp will be higher, by (date)"
Another 10,000 say "stock for Ramjac Corp will be lower, by (date)"
Another 10,000 say "stock for Ramjac Corp will be unchanged, by (date)"

After (date), Beddanaylz deletes 20,000 names (he was 'wrong' for these) and mails 10,000 new letters, to those who got the 'right' prediction on the first mailing:

"You saw my perfect prediction last time. Now I'll make another, again to demonstrate, before you trust me with a dime of your hard-earned fortune, my prefect prognostication".

The 3,333 letters say ... (some other stock) high (date)
Another 3,333 letters say ...(some other stock) low (date)
Another 3,333 letters say ...(some other stock) unchanged (date)

He repeats the above until he has about 123 people convinced that he is an absolute, infallible, total, unearthly, prophetic genius. They then all invest their entire life savings with him, with which he promptly absconds to Brazil.

He built a rep on a phony basis, then cashed in on it. This same reasoning shows why a program like Radical Honesty is so dangerous. After securing your reputation as one who is 'radically honest', you'd be in the same position as Mr. Beddanaylz when he got down to the 123 final sheep.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), November 11, 1999

Answers

Radical Honesty or Amway - the perfect gift for someone with too many friends.

JZ

-- Jeff Zurschmeide (zursch@cyberhighway.net), November 11, 1999.

If your a friend of an Amway friend, you won't remain friends unless you become an Amway friend yourself...been there and lost what I thought was a friend.

-- NonAmway Friend (nonAmway friend@nonAmwayfrienddd.xcom), November 11, 1999.

A good friend been involved with Amway for several years. It has been a big struggle to the poin his wife decided she had enough. But he would not give up. They are now divorced. He gave up a good wife for Scamway. Can you believe that?

-- scamway (scamway@scamway.com), November 11, 1999.