[PragmaticPulp]

Consequences often catch up slowly. It took years for Elizabeth Holmes to be sentenced because it takes time to collect evidence, build an airtight case, and give people their due process.

As I get older, I'm actually noticing more and more consequences catching up with people, albeit slowly. The people I knew who drank heavily through their 20s and 30s are in much worse shape than basically anyone who made an effort to stay healthy. People with poor diets and low physical activity are visibly worse off than others who paid attention to their inputs. I knew several people who got into recreational drugs in their 20s thinking they were safe because they educated themselves before hand, yet who ended up losing jobs, relationships, wealth, and a few who even lost their lives.

I've also noticed more peoples' career reputations catching up with them. It's not uncommon to interview someone only to later discover that they left a very negative reputation at a previous company where I happen to know someone.

I was very jealous of one of my peers who job-hopped his way up the salary ladder, joining companies and then immediately focusing on nothing other than interviewing at his next salary increase. He rotated through several of the big companies here until his reputation for demanding high salaries and then delivering nothing at all finally locked him out of any company with well-networked people who knew about him. He literally had to leave the state and go somewhere new to escape his past network and get new jobs after 10 years of this.

Consequences do catch up to people most times, but it's not immediately obvious. If you expect immediate justice or for people like SBF to go straight to jail the moment the headlines break, you're only seeing the beginning of the story.

[hnhg]

I can't match up your anecdata with mine. I can think of numerous people who have done all the things you have mentioned and have no suffered no ill-effects. In fact, many have prospered from lying or cheating the system. From substance abuse to habitual lying, there were no consequences and actually in some cases great wealth was accrued. A great deal of awful people have a very fine life out of it, and there is no greater cosmic justice to address this.

Also, one could argue another interpretation of what you are advising is never take a risk, because it will have consequences. Well, in real life, it doesn't always. You can get away with a lot, and people do.

[PragmaticPulp]

> Also, one could argue another interpretation of what you are advising is never take a risk, because it will have consequences.

That's not at all what I was saying. I was referring to predictable negative consequences of unhealthy behaviors.

There are many risks that don't involve gambling away your health, your reputation, your credibility, etc.

[daydream]

> Consequences often catch up slowly.

Agreed. Few people defy gravity; in the end most hit the ground.

The phrase “slowly, then suddenly” comes to mind.

[ghostbrainalpha]

Should term consequences rarely align with expectations.

But Long term consequences always do.

[ChainOfFools]

The universe is eventually consistent

[satvikpendem]

I favorited this comment for showing me a new analogy in your second sentence. I'll have to use that one in the future.

[ZephyrBlu]

The problem is that time value is extremely relevant. If it takes 10-20 years for consequences to catch up, the person is likely to have already built up an unassailable lead that the consequence barely dents.

> He literally had to leave the state and go somewhere new to escape his past network and get new jobs after 10 years of this.

That's not even that bad of a consequence. It sounds like his strategy was worth it tbh.

Personally I hate this kind of behaviour, but from a maximization POV (Especially in regards to career) it seems like the best move. There is likely some risk of ruin, but the upside appears to be much greater.

[insightcheck]

> The problem is that time value is extremely relevant. If it takes 10-20 years for consequences to catch up, the person is likely to have already built up an unassailable lead that the consequence barely dents.

I largely agree with you: the big names attached to the resume, the pay, and the effort spent on interviewing skills likely offset the negatives of the reputation (though I also intuitively don't like it because the strategy is rather self-centred).

However, the consequence is rather significant if he has roots. It's harder to pack up and move if one has a romantic partner who is settled into a job at a particular place, and you could also possibly be leaving family and friends. Sometimes one has to move, but typically one has the option to come back, which wouldn't be practical for the person in question. It's still plausibly worth it for the person if he didn't have roots and collected a lot of compensation, but especially when one is older (the commenter mentioned 10 years of workin experience), moves can be tougher.

[insightcheck]

To add another piece of evidence, while previous poster noted that the initial response by police officers on January 6 seemed less violent than they could have been (though even then, one person was shot and killed), the US Department of Justice is continuing to publish press releases about charges of people involved in the January 6 Capitol attack (at https://www.justice.gov/news , with full records with dates at https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases). The charges for many of the people involved caught up eventually, though it took time.

Separately, to put a positive spin on this, it often takes time for positive habits to pay off. When picking up a positive habit (e.g. exercise and especially learning a new technical skill such as a language), oftentimes much of the reward doesn't come until far later. This is important to keep in mind, especially if one has self-doubts or even a lack of encouragement for trying to adopt a new positive habit in one's life.

[icelancer]

I think both you and the GP are correct. I do think that consequences are being detached from actions, at least in the last decade of free money and rapid growth. But I also agree with you on the slow burning nature of small bad decisions made many times over years on end.

With the economy contracting and inflation skyrocketing, consequences should be back in fashion relatively soon. We're already seeing it in mass layoffs and other areas of business.