Three Ways to Get Paid (2018)
Three ways to make a living: lie to those who want lies and get rich; tell truth to truth-seekers and make a living; tell truth to those wanting lies and go broke.
Jason Zweig shares a three-part rule from his father on earning money. The rule states there are three ways to make a living based on the intersection of truthfulness and audience preference: lying to those who want to be lied to leads to wealth; telling the truth to those seeking truth produces a modest living; telling the truth to those wanting deception results in financial failure. Zweig notes he posted this observation three years prior but is republishing it in one place due to repeated reader requests.
What HN community is saying
Commenters extended the rule into a 2x2 matrix exploring combinations of self-deception and external honesty, noting the original may have omitted a fourth option (lying to truth-seekers, where fraud lives). Several argued the rule oversimplifies or doesn't apply to jobs like fruit-picking or garbage collection. A top comment suggested integrity communities can be financially rewarding, contradicting the premise that honesty guarantees poverty. Some discussed the article's brevity and noted the full WSJ piece link was broken.