It's All About The Hype

This has annoyed me for many years, but I seem to get more and more annoyed by it as I grow older. You know the type of person I am talking about - the person who exaggerates or just plain lies about their accomplishments just to make themselves look better. We get more than our fair share of these in the music biz, but you can find them almost everywhere, even in academia. For now, we will call these people "Hypesters" (I would have used "hyper," but it's already taken.)

Conventional wisdom tells those of us who do not possess this skill that the Hypesters will eventually "get theirs." However, there are usually enough gullible people who believe the hype, and the Hypesters can often con them into almost anything. Interestingly enough, some Hypesters are very shrewd, choosing lies that will be difficult to verify, while some are not very intelligent about their subterfuge at all. Shrewd or not, many of them get away with it for years, if not their entire lives.

Often, Hypesters have a knack for finding people with alot more talent and alot less self-confidence than themselves. We will call them "Einsteins." Hypesters are usually able to somehow manipulate Einsteins into being their unwitting slaves. As a result, the Hypester will often rise to even greater heights of glory, while the Einstein must hide in the shadows.

Let's face it, we are surrounded by many Hypesters who are wildly successful. It seems like far fewer Einsteins are able to achieve that kind of success. In fact, we are usually very gratified to see a true Einstein achieve success, because we know it was well-earned!

So, would you rather be a Hypester or an Einstein?

I'm reading: It's All About The Hype