Do you enjoy watching people fail?

Title says it all. How do you approach schadenfreude, and how has it affected your career or life?

Personally, I enjoy watching people fail. I'm at HYPSM and it's astounding how little accountability people take for their own learning and success.

24 Comments
 

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Yale is cool

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Ross Alums look like Ann Arbor weather to me. Because as far as I'm concerned they all got ZERO DEGREES!

 
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I had a close friend who was fired from his corporate job for incompetence. He and I became closer friends as his life collapsed around him—job loss, divorce, career in shambles, drug use, living at home in his 30s. Guy goes on to become a medical doctor (turns out he’s so smart that easy corporate jobs were too boring for him to be good at) and I no longer find him interesting because his life isn’t falling apart. Turns out I enjoyed his failures but wasn’t entertained by his success. Maybe I’m the bad guy? 

Array
 

Or maybe you grew apart as people. Big difference between working in finance and being a doctor. Seems he basically restarted his life and became a different person. 

 

If I personally know the person is an absolute cunt of a human being then yes, I have enjoyed watching people fail. I have even enjoyed watching someone die.

Generally speaking though - no, to do so IMO is an insecurity about oneself. Seeing others become successful is just showing you different paths to success you can walk

 

haha count yourself lucky that you grew up in a well enough area where you didn't have to interact with the absolute scum of society. There are people, and again very few - and not in most circles people who post here run in, that are truly violent/criminal/selfish/sociopathic/abusive that the world is better off without. 

Not dancing on the graves of these individuals but also not going to pretend like there isn't some positive reaction when their behaviors lead to their own demise. Fortunately now dont have to interact in those circles but growing up in a poor area that wasn't always the case

 

I can find it entertaining when a holier than thou politician or some pastor or something gets caught doing something scandalous and therefore being exposed for his or hers hypocrisie.

Also people who are asking for trouble, like that piece of shit that was heckling Mike Tyson and got slapped, the instant karma stuff.

However if you enjoy watching your friends fail, you have issues.

 

reminds me of this long-haired CEO of a financial payments company in SF who were posting "wise" LinkedIn posts every week or so about how he cut his salary to pay everybody at least $70k and how he gives everybody all benefits and unlimited PTO and people can work when they want, where they want, and wear what they want and look how they want. and this guy was convicted of rape recently and it resurfaced that he abused his wife and waterboarded her.

 

I've always enjoyed watching arrogant people fail, especially when you succeed and they don't. What's great is you can continue to watch this over a lifetime. "Yeah you know GS wasn't really a good fit for me i wanted hands on deal experience. That's why I'm at Citi!"

 

No. Unless they were complete dickheads to me then it’s more of a you kinda deserved it. But even then I don’t like seeing failure bc my turn to fail is right around the corner.

 

If they deserve to fail through hubris or deceit or other kind of fraud, then yes I absolutely love to see them fail. If they have credible ideas, motives and persuasion but someone else makes it not happen? Then no, I do not enjoy watching that failure. That's when it turns into revenge porn watching the saboteurs get their comeuppance and failure.

The poster formerly known as theAudiophile. Just turned up to 11, like the stereo.
 

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