#blender kept randomly crashing!!!!!!!!!

[amelia-yap]

rotate 360°

[queennicoleinboots]

Swamp Ass

A/N: Alternate Reality. Shit just happens.

It was yet another 80 degree-Fahrenheit day in Georgia. But 80 degrees is not 80 degrees in Georgia. It's really closer to 100 degrees when you factor in humidity and radiation from cell phone towers. I was sweating (and eating) like a pig.

My husband, Joebear, was growling because his butt was sweating. He hated having swamp ass. So he turned on the air conditioner. He also had a fan blowing in his face. The bear needed to be cool in order to not go bear shit on the world.

Speaking of bears, Colonel Mac, a gray bear, was riding over swamp land in his power wheelchair. His wheels were getting stuck in the swamp bog, so he kept having to ride one foot forward and two feet back. He was also grumbling about having a swamp ass because it was sweating in the chair. Clearly, he was having a fucked-up day.

Bruce the Ace of Brake-fixing also had a terrible case of swamp ass. He was taking a huge shit on some documents he needed to get rid of because his shredder stopped working. His angry brown bear wife named Megara thought his swamp ass was being put to good use. She had swamp ass, too.

I also had swamp ass. I was sitting under a tree in the swamp and eating vegetable soup and chocolate. I was also waiting on my husband's meatloaf to finish cooking so I could eat that. It had swamp ass, too.

Paul the Goat was trying to mow the swamp with his lawn mower because he was sick of the bog. His lawn mower broke. He started bleating with a deep voice and beating the hell out of the lawn mower. Apparently, he would scratch his butt every now and then. He lacked air conditioner and hot water. He had a case of swamp ass, too.

Hollywood, his horse that joined the Secret American Society of Sexually Frustrated Goats literally a second ago, also just took a sloppy, green dump on the lawn mower. His leg was in severe pain and needed an X-ray specifically done by a sexually frustrated goat veterinarian. Hollywood also had swamp ass.

Joebear realized that he could smell the horse shit. He sniffed the air and asked, "Whoa! What the fuck is that bullshit smell?" He squinched his nose and looked around to see Paul the Goat peeing on the lawn mower to rinse the horse shit off of it. The smell of the piss and shit was being caught in the fan. "Oh my God I'm braindead!" Joebear turned off the fan and stuck his head in the computer screen. "Actually braindead." Joebear scratched his head. He laughed. "That's fucked up. That's very much fucked up. And sometimes I wonder why I'm fucked up."

I laughed at my husband and said, "I'm sorry, bae. I'm fucked up."

Colonel Mac ran into a tree when he was backing up. The tree was moist and left a wet streak on Colonel Mac's back. "What the fuck is wrong with this tree?!" he screamed as he went forward and looked behind him as he shook his fist at the tree. "DOES IT NEED A MASSAGE?!" Even the tree had swamp ass.

"Apparently," I said. "I need a forehead massage to deal with all of this swamp ass!" I started to massage my own forehead.

"OH MY GOD!!!!!! FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!!!!" Joebear screamed at his computer. Apparently, it had swamp ass, too.

Colonel Mac tried to ride over to me before the damn wheelchair got caught on a fuckass tree root and sent him flying toward me. "HOLY SHIT!" he yelled in a strong Southern accent.

"All right. Time to get around this guy's dumb shit. Mother fucker!" Joebear growled as he referred to the tree with swamp ass and glared at his computer screen.

"I managed to get around the guy's dumb shit!" Colonel Mac screamed as his body ended up going through my forehead at Ludacris speed. He went physically through a tree before screaming as he landed right between Joebear and me. Then, Colonel Mac got up and started dancing a gig to the Chicken Dance song.

"Goddammit fucking horse!" Joebear screamed before Hollywood ran his bear ass over. The horse then kicked the shit out of the oven where the meatloaf was. "Ugh. Calm that shit down!" Joebear rolled over and growled.

Colonel Mac farted as he danced. Bruce the Ace of Brake-fixing farted as he ate a piece of a chicken. I farted as my ass was now foggy bottom.

The oven threw out the meatloaf and flew into Joebear's bear ass. "Just random kids! Why are they writing stories about my dinner going in my ass? Let's get rid of this dumb shit." On that note, Joebear took a shit. He also cussed out Black Desert Online and Magic the Gathering as he played them on his computer. He tried to play League of Legends, but he kept getting matches where he was 4 versus 5.

Colonel Mac also took this moment to take a shit to finish the dance. His ass was now a swamp. His shit literally consumed all of us. Now we were located in Swamp Ass Mac in Logantown, Georgia. This man hugged everyone as dudes do. No homo. No gay shit.

Skipjacks were swimming around in Mac's shit. Peter, my curly-haired jerk ex-client with green eyes, was sitting on a toilet that was on top of a shit wave that crashed near us.

Peter growled. "Dammit! Over a year later, and it happened again. Explosive diarrhea. Fuck me. I'm a zombie who has been radiated by nearby cell phone towers. OH AND I HAVE COVID-19!" he screamed as he remained on the toilet.

Joebear ate a piece of meatloaf before looking at him. "Dude, you're fucked up."

"Oh God. My long lost cousin's sister's brother's former college roommate almost had Covid a month ago. You're the first asshole who has it this month," Colonel Mac said. "Something tells me you're a swamp asshole."

"WHO IS HE TO YOU?!" Bruce the Ace of Brake-fixing sang randomly.

"Absolutely nobody," Colonel Mac said with a hearty laugh.

"What was the point of mentioning it then?" Megara asked as she threw her left hip to the side.

"The son'a bitch was a Democrat!" Colonel Mac said with a snort laugh.

"Really? I heard almost all Democrats had it," Peter said as he blinked.

"Yep. Only liberals have it," I said as I poked his right shoulder repeatedly.

"Oh fuck you, Xara!" Peter said as he rolled his eyes and poked me repeatedly. "Everything's political with you!"

Joebear ate a fish that was in Peter's shit wave. "What am I going to do about my balls?"

"I don't know, bae. You have swamp balls," I said.

"Swamp balls? What the fuck are those?" Joebear asked.

"They're like swamp ass. You have sweaty balls," I said.

Joebear stared at me with his bear brown eyes. "... Girl. You fucked up," he said.

Colonel Mac growled in agreement.

A random song from the 80s, "Hi! ho! Let's Go!" started playing in the swamp.

"Shut the. Fuck. Up. Shut the. Fuck. Up," Joebear sang along. "Let's stick our dicks in a blender and see what happens."

I laughed so hard I had a headache.

"Why not? I can't have sex when I have Covid. Might as well stick my dick in a blender and feed it to these fish," Peter said with a shrug.

The skipjacks immediately began to swirl around Peter while making goofy noises. They were hungry. And they had swamp ass.

"Fuck off. I was being facetious. And it's a fucking oven out here! It's almost as bad as when my old Ford Lincoln had no AC. Thank God that fucking car caught on fire," Peter spoke.

"That's nothing. I abuse my dick three times a day and have sex. And fuck that car indeed," Joebear said as he growled and started masturbating.

Paul the Goat bleated and had to excuse himself.

"There are too many penises and swamp asses in this story!" Colonel Mac shouted. "This is gay!"

Joebear growled loudly and realized that Colonel Mac was correct. "You're right, dude. I need sex!" Joebear screamed.

Everyone bleated except me. I was eating more vegetables. I needed to shower. I had swamp ass.

"Bae Whuhhh!!! Let me eat! Let me shower!" I shouted happily as I ate.

"Hurry up. I need to release seed. In fact, I need to eat, too. I am going to eat a sandwich!"

So Joebear took his sandwich and remaining piece of meatloaf and went in the woods to await me.

Colonel Mac tried to get out of this story, but he managed to tweak his right knee. "Oh fuck! I can't even get out of this sausage fest story! I'm fucked. Sigh!" he complained as his right leg was completely consumed by the swamp. It had swamp ass.

"Story of my life," Peter said with a giggle. "You would positively DIE if you knew half of the horrible shit I'VE gone through. Especially in the last three years. Holy Shit being around Xara is a curse!"

I giggled and ate the last bite of soup. Then, I walked over to fish out Colonel Mac's leg from swamp ass and patted his knee. "I'll give you the transcripts," I said to Colonel Mac as I poked the knee once.

"Feels good," Colonel Mac said. "Okay. Send the transcripts."

"Fuck you," Peter said as he folded his arms over his chest and glared at me with menacing green eyes.

"Haha. You're a dick, Peter," I said as I left the swamp.

Ted the Alligator then drained the swamp. Peter was going down a toilet while he remained on the toilet. Colonel Mac also was flushed down the toilet. Paul the Goat bleated, and Hollywood winnied as they were also flushed down Swamp Ass Mac's drain. Bruce the Ace of Brake-fixing randomly sang in opera, "SWAMP ASS!!! MY ASS PASSES GAS" as the end credits to this story.

[amazingworkspaces-blog]

The Budget Battle station Workspace

Here are some of the products that make this workspace an Amazing Workspace:

8GB 1600mhz DDR3

I built this PC in January 2017.

I have my reasons for having WiFi. The bathroom and my room are on the same circuit. When the piece of shit bathroom fan turns off, I immediately lose audio, and my computer was crashing as well. After bios and other various updates it no longer crashes. I just have to unplug and re-plug in my audio interface. For those reasons I have been skeptical at investing in wall outlet Ethernet adapters because of the electrical noise caused by the fan on the circuit may impede any gains upgrading from WiFi. Thoughts?

At the time it cost under $500. I could have gotten better used gear, but I had not upgraded my PC in a decade. I couldn't even use my old case. Everything had to be upgraded. I have been team red, so when Linus Tech Tips had a gaming PC build guide for X-mas 2016, I went with the lower tier, as it took out the compatibility issues out of the equation. I was a poor, console peasant -out of the loop with the new sheit. Video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLfUkjUaSdM ,However I went with a VIVO mATX case.

I pieced together my desk by buying the segments on sale second hand. The desk table I re-purposed from a coffee table, and removing the legs along with a couple of filing cabinets. The desk cost $12 total. The dimensions are 56" (140cm) x 24" (60cm) x 28" (72cm). Monitors are a SyncMaster 226BW 1680 x 1050, and a Dell E207WFP 1680 x 1050. Both monitors $10 each second hand, looking to upgrade to 1080p 144hz for my main monitor.

AMD 860K

Also, Yanked a Hyper 212 EVO off Craigslist for a trade ($15).

Chair was less than $5 second hand. I removed the left arm rest because guitar.

RX 480 4G

(Sorry for any taco drips, and dust hares that might offend).

Recently, I found this Tt Poseidon ZX second hand for $5. Was sold as is - some keys didn't work. Took it apart and blasted it with electrical cleaner, and did the o ring mod. Works fine other than some keys stuttering - where I hit a key normal, annd it doess thhhis (for instance). Only randomly though. Not sure if I should start over, or whip out my soldering skills. 5 year warranty my ass! I worked with keyboards so old they still sport the AT port. Glad I didn't waste my money on this new.

Another investment that payed for itself - RP-DH1200. I spent $150 on them 2007, and they have endured daily use. Though, I have replaced the ear pads. Cyanoacrylates have held the cord together for the decade strait jackin'.

120 SSD Kingston

Microsoft SideWinder gaming mouse. I bought this when Circuit City went out of business on clearance for like $20-25 in 2008 (75% off retail). I remember also buying pc100 (or was it pc133) memory, and a jvc car audio deck display model with a busted face clip that I MacGyver-ed then outlived 4 cars.

Steel Series QcK+ Gaming Mouse Pad. Dimensions 15" (450mm) x 17" (400mm). Well worth the $15.

I will get my cable management cherry once I figure out a UPS solution. This is the extent of my RBG lighting. It was free so better than nothing.

The extent of content I create is audio. I have been dabbling with blender tutorials as well as gaming. I have been working on cpu overclocking, but run into stability issues with my A68HM-K motherboard. I have had so much fun working on my battle station, and I am just getting started after a decade of stagnation. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to any input!

EVGA 80+ BRONZE 500W

The only thing I kept was 2 500GB HDDs which I will be upgrading.

This is my back-up at the moment. 8 GB USB 2.

I must have bought this 2008. It is dual channel in and out. It has endured beer spills, and pizza delivery guy drummers for a decade.

Cuts out at times, not sure if its the cord or the mic. Though, not an issue when stationary. Don't lend out microphones to vocalists boys.

[samuelfields]

4 examples of herd mentality (and what to do about it)

You’ve probably had a parent or teacher ask you, “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?”

Of course not! That’s insane. You’re a strong and independent free-thinker. Why would you do that?

Well, I guess that’s fine.

…but what if your friends weren’t jumping off a cliff?

Instead, what if they’re all buying the latest iPhone? Every day you see them playing with cool apps, taking great pictures, and talking about how great the phone is. After a while, it’s not so much a question of if you’re going to buy an iPhone but when.

This is herd mentality — and you’ve probably seen it before:

Investors rushing to buy a specific stock because it’s supposedly “hot.”

Parents frantically buying Tickle Me Elmos for their kids after they see every other parent doing it.

Fidget spinners. Dear god, so many fidget spinners…

When it comes to your personal finances, herd mentality could mean the difference between getting swept up by the panic of a recession and keeping your head.

Let’s take a closer look at herd mentality and see how exactly it can harm AND help us.

What is herd mentality?

Herd mentality describes a behavior in which people act the same way or adopt similar behaviors as the people around them — often ignoring their own feelings in the process.

Think of a sheep blindly following the flock no matter where they go just because that’s what the herd is doing.

And this isn’t just pseudoscience: There have been peer-reviewed psychological studies conducted on the subject.

In 2008, Professor Jens Krause and Dr. John Dyer of Leeds University conducted an experiment where groups of subjects were told to walk in a random path inside of a big hall while not communicating with the other subjects. However, the researchers told a few of the subjects exactly where they should walk.

Guess what happened? They discovered that the people who were told exactly where to walk started being followed by the subjects walking “randomly.”  

From Professor Krause:

We’ve all been in situations where we get swept along by the crowd. But what’s interesting about this research is that our participants ended up making a consensus decision despite the fact that they weren’t allowed to talk or gesture to one another. In most cases the participants didn’t realise they were being led by others.

In the end, they found that it took just 5% of people walking confidently to influence 95% of the other walkers to follow them.

And looking around, you’ll see examples of this type of behavior everywhere:

Herd mentality exhibit A: Black Friday madness

The day after Thanksgiving consistently reigns as one of the biggest shopping days of the year. It’s also the one day where you can count on completely sane and reasonable people to regress into wild-eyed, feral monkeys ready to step on each other’s neck for a flat screen TV.

Why? Why do people forgo spending a relaxing holiday with friends and family to get punched in the face so they can save 30% on a blender?

An Auburn University study found that the experience of shopping can actually be enhanced when there’s a large crowd around you, turning an otherwise bad experience into a fun one. What might seem objectively like a bad idea becomes a “good idea” with a few more people around us.

Pictured: More fun than Disney World?

Whether it’s Black Friday or a 21-year-old’s birthday party, though, fun things can quickly turn into a mess of screaming, hair pulling, and crying (or was that just me?) as we succumb to our animal instincts.

Herd mentality exhibit B: The dot-com bubble

Cast your mind back to a simpler time. A time of Starter jackets, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and ska music. I’m talking about the 90s.

Along with your dope Pog collection, the 90s also were the dawn of a new and exciting piece of technology called the internet. As soon as people realized you could monetize the internet, investors of all stripes began to pour millions upon millions of dollars into different “dot-com companies” (businesses that exist online).

However, many of these investments turned out to be pure speculation — resulting in the infamous dot-com bubble. So after years of investing in shady tech companies that often didn’t have a product to begin with, the bubble burst in the early-2000s. Scores of tech companies went belly up and even more investors lost their millions.

One prime example? Pets.com.

Some of you might be too young to remember this, but those who do probably recall seeing commercials featuring a certain sock-puppet dog talking to people. Pets.com — a company that sold pet supplies online.

Here it is in all its nightmare-inducing glory.

When the company went public in early 2000, they saw their shares rise to $14. However, the dot-com bubble soon burst and they saw their market value tank to a measly $1/share. Hundreds were laid off as the company buckled later that year. Now, their domain redirects to PetSmart’s website and the company exists as a sad example of herd mentality.

Herd mentality exhibit C: Disney Theme Parks’ firework shows

It’s the happiest place on Earth. A magical land where you can meet your favorite Disney princess, eat turkey legs the size of your own leg, and get songs stuck in your head for years.

Haunting.

It’s also a place where you can see mob mentality in action 365 days out of the year. Disney has been able to leverage mob mentality to draw people to their parks and keep them coming back year after year since they opened their first park in 1955.

One of their most clever usages of mob mentality comes in the form of their famous nightly firework shows.

Back in the early years of the park, Walt Disney had a problem: Families all over America were clamoring to get into Disneyland…but they left as soon as they hit up all the rides they planned to go to.

After all, this was the earliest days of theme parks in general. People had no frame of reference and no idea what to expect when they showed up to Disneyland. So when families started showing up, they followed the other families — staying for as long as they needed to go on certain rides and then leaving.

Walt needed to find a way to keep them there though, or else he took a hit in opportunity costs.

That’s when park planners came up with the idea of having a fireworks show so that families had something to look forward to at the end of the day. Soon families started staying in the park longer, as word-of-mouth spread the news of the fireworks show at the day’s end.

The plan worked. People stayed until the end of the day, and more than 50 years later you can still see that example of herd mentality in action at Disney parks all over the world.

Herd mentality exhibit D: The housing market crash

It’s been almost a decade since the housing market crashed in 2008 but in many ways, the effects of it are still being felt today. And though the reasons behind the crash are incredibly nuanced and complex, it all boils down to a bubble caused by a massive amount of homeowners being unable to pay their mortgages.

The result of the crash led to millions of people losing their jobs, scores of people losing their homes, and consumer spending dropping by 8%.

While there are many factors that caused the crash, I want to talk about how mob mentality ran rampant after it.

Because when the housing bubble burst, investors got nervous. They were so nervous they found themselves falling prey to a herd mentality behavior called “panic selling,” wherein people sell off their shares en masse due to paranoia and fear, resulting in stock prices plummeting. Investors got scared that if they kept their money in the market, they would lose it. This resulted in people pulling their money out of the market. Which resulted in prices going down and… well, you know how this ended.

Can herd mentality be good?

While many examples of herd mentality can seem downright scary, it’s not all doom and gloom. Herd mentality can actually be a GREAT thing if you let it be.

Michael Bond, author of The Power of Others: Peer Pressure, Groupthink, and How the People Around Us Shape Everything We Do, wrote that herd mentality can actually “change the course of history.”

From Bond:

The Egyptian revolution of late January and early February 2011 was a stunning example of cooperative power (even though its achievements have partly been squandered). What’s more, those who gathered in Tahrir Square to demand the fall of Hosni Mubarak had the time of their lives.

One retired businessman who traveled from Alexandria, Egypt, to join the protesters told me: “I found something lovely. There were all kinds of people. From universities, secondary schools, preparatory schools. Homeless people. People from every religion. All divisions disappeared. Everyone had one purpose. I was really crying, for this was the first time I saw the Egyptian people unafraid of anything.”

Aside from changing the landscape of politics, herd mentality can also be leveraged when it comes to your investments — or at least Warren Buffett thinks so. “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful,” he says.

What he means is that you should always be more than willing to go against the herd when it comes to your investments. The person who is going to come out on top of a bubble burst or market crash is the one who keeps their head and doesn’t immediately dump all their stock.

Which brings us to…

What YOU should do to use herd mentality to your advantage

By its nature, herd mentality is difficult to spot in the moment. After all, a snowflake doesn’t realize that it’s a part of the avalanche. Same goes for you when you’re swept up by market trends.

But if you do find yourself in the midst of a herd, keep in mind BOTH the dangers and benefits of herd mentality. And remember that Warren Buffett quote from before: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

And if you’re new to investing, we want to show you exactly how to do that.

Simply by doing your research, you’re already ahead of 99.99% of people out there when it comes to planning for your financial future.

That’s why we want to offer you The Ultimate Guide to Personal Finance.

In it, you’ll learn how to:

Master your 401k: Take advantage of free money offered to you by your company … and get rich while doing it.

Manage Roth IRAs: Start saving for retirement in a worthwhile long-term investment account.

Spend the money you have — guilt-free: By leveraging the systems in this book, you’ll learn exactly how you’ll be able to save money to spend without the guilt.

Enter your info below and get on your way to living a Rich Life today.

4 examples of herd mentality (and what to do about it) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/herd-mentality/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewdburton]

4 examples of herd mentality (and what to do about it)

You’ve probably had a parent or teacher ask you, “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?”

Of course not! That’s insane. You’re a strong and independent free-thinker. Why would you do that?

Well, I guess that’s fine.

…but what if your friends weren’t jumping off a cliff?

Instead, what if they’re all buying the latest iPhone? Every day you see them playing with cool apps, taking great pictures, and talking about how great the phone is. After a while, it’s not so much a question of if you’re going to buy an iPhone but when.

This is herd mentality — and you’ve probably seen it before:

Investors rushing to buy a specific stock because it’s supposedly “hot.”

Parents frantically buying Tickle Me Elmos for their kids after they see every other parent doing it.

Fidget spinners. Dear god, so many fidget spinners…

When it comes to your personal finances, herd mentality could mean the difference between getting swept up by the panic of a recession and keeping your head.

Let’s take a closer look at herd mentality and see how exactly it can harm AND help us.

What is herd mentality?

Herd mentality describes a behavior in which people act the same way or adopt similar behaviors as the people around them — often ignoring their own feelings in the process.

Think of a sheep blindly following the flock no matter where they go just because that’s what the herd is doing.

And this isn’t just pseudoscience: There have been peer-reviewed psychological studies conducted on the subject.

In 2008, Professor Jens Krause and Dr. John Dyer of Leeds University conducted an experiment where groups of subjects were told to walk in a random path inside of a big hall while not communicating with the other subjects. However, the researchers told a few of the subjects exactly where they should walk.

Guess what happened? They discovered that the people who were told exactly where to walk started being followed by the subjects walking “randomly.”  

From Professor Krause:

We’ve all been in situations where we get swept along by the crowd. But what’s interesting about this research is that our participants ended up making a consensus decision despite the fact that they weren’t allowed to talk or gesture to one another. In most cases the participants didn’t realise they were being led by others.

In the end, they found that it took just 5% of people walking confidently to influence 95% of the other walkers to follow them.

And looking around, you’ll see examples of this type of behavior everywhere:

Herd mentality exhibit A: Black Friday madness

The day after Thanksgiving consistently reigns as one of the biggest shopping days of the year. It’s also the one day where you can count on completely sane and reasonable people to regress into wild-eyed, feral monkeys ready to step on each other’s neck for a flat screen TV.

Why? Why do people forgo spending a relaxing holiday with friends and family to get punched in the face so they can save 30% on a blender?

An Auburn University study found that the experience of shopping can actually be enhanced when there’s a large crowd around you, turning an otherwise bad experience into a fun one. What might seem objectively like a bad idea becomes a “good idea” with a few more people around us.

Pictured: More fun than Disney World?

Whether it’s Black Friday or a 21-year-old’s birthday party, though, fun things can quickly turn into a mess of screaming, hair pulling, and crying (or was that just me?) as we succumb to our animal instincts.

Herd mentality exhibit B: The dot-com bubble

Cast your mind back to a simpler time. A time of Starter jackets, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and ska music. I’m talking about the 90s.

Along with your dope Pog collection, the 90s also were the dawn of a new and exciting piece of technology called the internet. As soon as people realized you could monetize the internet, investors of all stripes began to pour millions upon millions of dollars into different “dot-com companies” (businesses that exist online).

However, many of these investments turned out to be pure speculation — resulting in the infamous dot-com bubble. So after years of investing in shady tech companies that often didn’t have a product to begin with, the bubble burst in the early-2000s. Scores of tech companies went belly up and even more investors lost their millions.

One prime example? Pets.com.

Some of you might be too young to remember this, but those who do probably recall seeing commercials featuring a certain sock-puppet dog talking to people. Pets.com — a company that sold pet supplies online.

Here it is in all its nightmare-inducing glory.

When the company went public in early 2000, they saw their shares rise to $14. However, the dot-com bubble soon burst and they saw their market value tank to a measly $1/share. Hundreds were laid off as the company buckled later that year. Now, their domain redirects to PetSmart’s website and the company exists as a sad example of herd mentality.

Herd mentality exhibit C: Disney Theme Parks’ firework shows

It’s the happiest place on Earth. A magical land where you can meet your favorite Disney princess, eat turkey legs the size of your own leg, and get songs stuck in your head for years.

Haunting.

It’s also a place where you can see mob mentality in action 365 days out of the year. Disney has been able to leverage mob mentality to draw people to their parks and keep them coming back year after year since they opened their first park in 1955.

One of their most clever usages of mob mentality comes in the form of their famous nightly firework shows.

Back in the early years of the park, Walt Disney had a problem: Families all over America were clamoring to get into Disneyland…but they left as soon as they hit up all the rides they planned to go to.

After all, this was the earliest days of theme parks in general. People had no frame of reference and no idea what to expect when they showed up to Disneyland. So when families started showing up, they followed the other families — staying for as long as they needed to go on certain rides and then leaving.

Walt needed to find a way to keep them there though, or else he took a hit in opportunity costs.

That’s when park planners came up with the idea of having a fireworks show so that families had something to look forward to at the end of the day. Soon families started staying in the park longer, as word-of-mouth spread the news of the fireworks show at the day’s end.

The plan worked. People stayed until the end of the day, and more than 50 years later you can still see that example of herd mentality in action at Disney parks all over the world.

Herd mentality exhibit D: The housing market crash

It’s been almost a decade since the housing market crashed in 2008 but in many ways, the effects of it are still being felt today. And though the reasons behind the crash are incredibly nuanced and complex, it all boils down to a bubble caused by a massive amount of homeowners being unable to pay their mortgages.

The result of the crash led to millions of people losing their jobs, scores of people losing their homes, and consumer spending dropping by 8%.

While there are many factors that caused the crash, I want to talk about how mob mentality ran rampant after it.

Because when the housing bubble burst, investors got nervous. They were so nervous they found themselves falling prey to a herd mentality behavior called “panic selling,” wherein people sell off their shares en masse due to paranoia and fear, resulting in stock prices plummeting. Investors got scared that if they kept their money in the market, they would lose it. This resulted in people pulling their money out of the market. Which resulted in prices going down and… well, you know how this ended.

Can herd mentality be good?

While many examples of herd mentality can seem downright scary, it’s not all doom and gloom. Herd mentality can actually be a GREAT thing if you let it be.

Michael Bond, author of The Power of Others: Peer Pressure, Groupthink, and How the People Around Us Shape Everything We Do, wrote that herd mentality can actually “change the course of history.”

From Bond:

The Egyptian revolution of late January and early February 2011 was a stunning example of cooperative power (even though its achievements have partly been squandered). What’s more, those who gathered in Tahrir Square to demand the fall of Hosni Mubarak had the time of their lives.

One retired businessman who traveled from Alexandria, Egypt, to join the protesters told me: “I found something lovely. There were all kinds of people. From universities, secondary schools, preparatory schools. Homeless people. People from every religion. All divisions disappeared. Everyone had one purpose. I was really crying, for this was the first time I saw the Egyptian people unafraid of anything.”

Aside from changing the landscape of politics, herd mentality can also be leveraged when it comes to your investments — or at least Warren Buffett thinks so. “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful,” he says.

What he means is that you should always be more than willing to go against the herd when it comes to your investments. The person who is going to come out on top of a bubble burst or market crash is the one who keeps their head and doesn’t immediately dump all their stock.

Which brings us to…

What YOU should do to use herd mentality to your advantage

By its nature, herd mentality is difficult to spot in the moment. After all, a snowflake doesn’t realize that it’s a part of the avalanche. Same goes for you when you’re swept up by market trends.

But if you do find yourself in the midst of a herd, keep in mind BOTH the dangers and benefits of herd mentality. And remember that Warren Buffett quote from before: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

And if you’re new to investing, we want to show you exactly how to do that.

Simply by doing your research, you’re already ahead of 99.99% of people out there when it comes to planning for your financial future.

That’s why we want to offer you The Ultimate Guide to Personal Finance.

In it, you’ll learn how to:

Master your 401k: Take advantage of free money offered to you by your company … and get rich while doing it.

Manage Roth IRAs: Start saving for retirement in a worthwhile long-term investment account.

Spend the money you have — guilt-free: By leveraging the systems in this book, you’ll learn exactly how you’ll be able to save money to spend without the guilt.

Enter your info below and get on your way to living a Rich Life today.

4 examples of herd mentality (and what to do about it) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

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