Ramit Sethi Manipulative Writing Example

Ramit Sethi email:

This week I’ve been talking to you about one of my longest-running, most popular, most successful courses: Success Triggers.

But I don’t care that it’s proven so popular. I care about results. I want to see people make changes in their lives that lead to practical results.

I’ve gotten hundreds of stories over the years since Success Triggers first launched. Here are just a few of them:

He’s bragging but claiming not to care about the thing he’s bragging about. I’m great at X but I care about Y, he says. But he’s bringing up X on purpose, for the purpose of bragging about it, because he thinks it’s impressive and high status.

I believe this kind of writing actually fools most people, at least partially.

Test your understanding: What are X and Y?

X = popularity or being popular or making popular stuff
Y = practical results

Edited to add spoiler blur

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From Wikipedia:

Former United States President Donald Trump frequently employs apophasis.[14] In 2015, Trump said of fellow Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, “I promised I would not say that she ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground, that she laid off tens of thousands of people and she got viciously fired. I said I will not say it, so I will not say it.”[14] In 2016, he tweeted of journalist Megyn Kelly, “I refuse to call [her] a bimbo because that would not be politically correct.”[14] In 2017, as president, he tweeted of the leader of North Korea, “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old’, when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat’?”.[15]

Trump loved to bring stuff up while saying he wasn’t. Seems related to bringing stuff up but then saying you don’t care about it