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Comment by seizethecheese | Hacker News Reader

I’m curious what other professions have analogous issues.

Police who seed crime? (Surely.)

Developers who insert bugs?

20y ago in Poland there was a huge story where the ER responders were killing people to sell hints to a funeral house. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_Hunters

There is nearly a 100% conviction rate of the closest family member if the spouse/child/parent dies soon after a life insurance policy is created

My theory is that there is at least one serial killer that is a life insurance agent or someone that can see all the new policies

How would that work? I'm a generous guy, I like to help people. I'm also a psychopath who likes to kill people.

Kind of like Robin Hood but slightly crazier I go around murdering people who have just taken out policies to help out their beneficiaries.

There is nothing generous about selling life insurance policies so the idea of there being some cognitive dissonance is irreparable flawed

Its one of the most unscrupulous sales person industries there is, if not the most based on how tightly (but inadequately) regulated it is

Its just a cesspool of chasing leads and commissions from people that don’t actually need what the salesperson is selling

and the motive would be unrelated to life insurance, just taking advantage of a gap in the justice system, a sure fire way to get away with it and frame someone

Maybe politicians. They try to stage violent attacks against themselves and then accuse other parties for their own political gain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag

Cybersecurity researchers who let loose worms or ransomware?

Car mechanics who break things so you come back for more business?

Airline pilots who... hijack their own flight?... Hm

Why will developers insert bugs and make their own work harder? there is no extra recognition there, which is primarily a reason why they are doing it. But if you are regularly shipping bugs because you feel good at then fixing it and expect people to appreciate you for it, how long do you think that dev will last at a role?

Don’t think logically, think like a narcissist: If you plant that bug, you exactly know how to fix it. The more damage it causes, the higher the admiration if you fix it. HOWEVER, for that to work you'd need to blame someone else and gaslight everyone into believing your story. That makes it a tad more difficult, but I think it’s still doable.

Tire dealers that go around puncturing tires has been a urban legend for decades

That would be an expensive way to drum up business.

Expensive to just buy a box of suitable nails and just sprinkle them around while they're already driving places?

... And then drive under the threat that their own tires will get punctured as well.

> Developers who insert bugs

I knew it was the developers!

I mean, it's true isn't it? I guess it's the rare firefighter who unintentionally starts a fire but I guess it's a different game.

Garbageman comes to mind

Funding research to create a deadly virus and becoming the nations head of the taskforce in fighting that virus and associated with the companies that made fortunes using a recently created poorly tested vaccine technology on the world to fight the virus.

Seems like a set of people that suddenly made themselves really useful.

...

You can also look at lots of events that trigger wars where the side looking to get into the war seems to have a very convenient tragic even to validate their entry into a war.

Or situations where people make other dependent on them so they can constantly save them from not being able to be independent.

Or people who like to pick fights try to make it so someone will do something that will unwittingly offend them.

The world is full of setups, many subconsciously created, so that one person can be the hero or main character in their own narrative.

Heck we even do it to ourselves when we procrastinate so much that we have to save ourselves with Herculean effort to get something done on time.

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