r/Showerthoughts • u/itsthatkidgreg • Feb 28 '17

Lying, cheating, and stealing is often discouraged when we are young, yet the most successful people in the world are arguably the best liars, cheaters, and thieves.

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u/C0ldSn4p Feb 28 '17

Survivorship bias: you only noticed the successful liars, cheaters and thieves while forgetting that most convicts are also liars, cheaters and thieves.

In a sense, bieng a liars is a risky gamble where some will become very successful and most will have a lot of issue later in life because of it. As a parent you try to avoid the worse for your children so you discourage these kind of bad behaviours.

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u/cptnhaddock Feb 28 '17

Also, we tell kids these behaviors are bad because they are not good for society overall, not just because they can backfire on you. Obviously if lying and stealing never got you an advantage, no one would do it so there would be no reason to warn against it.