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When he was alive a lot of people said Epstein was really smart. But I have read some of his emails, and all of the ones I have seen are full of spelling, punc

When he was alive a lot of people said Epstein was really smart. But I have read some of his emails, and all of the ones I have seen are full of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization errors. I would not gotten out of sixth grade if I wrote like that.

moralestapia 7mo ago
I think that ... given one specific topic, few people understand it while the vast majority is completely oblivious to its workings. So they then hear someone who speaks like that, with a fast cadence and Andrew Tate's "Confidence" TM, and are inclined to think "yeah, the guy looks like he knows what he's talking about". But for people who have minimal knowledge about the thing, it's evident that said person is just stupid.
- actionfromafar 7mo ago
  It's on a different axis to stupid. These people play another kind of game, like scammers, they filter away people who can see through their bullshit. To them, actually learning a "normal" topic is a distraction. Their game is finding and exploiting weaknesses.
  - TheOtherHobbes 7mo ago
    It's literally a marketing funnel for corruption. Having Smart People™ at your "parties" adds a layer of legitimacy and social proof you wouldn't get if you were Bubba from Nowhere Town. Some people will be attracted by the menu, some people won't realise what's happening until they see the video they're starring in. Either way, you own them.
    - prawn 7mo ago
      It's seemed to me that he was a habitual/obsessive networker. Someone up-thread described it as an urge to collect smart/impressive people, with the advantage being as you described. I suspect if you took away his horrible other interests, he'd still have been extremely sociable. Maybe aspects of blackmail/control are near-inevitable at the conjunction of criminal behaviour and power?
      - sallycarmen 7mo ago
        Sociable if you’re dumb like prince Andrew. Steven pinker the Harvard professor thought him an idiot. Said he was inane and a fraud who could only respond with stupid adolescent comments. Maybe somd like that sort of person and think they are fun. No doubt lots do, the guy down the pub who’s a laugh. Appeals to similarly dumb folk.
razingeden 7mo ago
I like using “astute businessman” as a backhanded compliment sometimes. Usually meaning the revenues and results are there .. although everything about their personal or professional ethos disgusts me. Eh. From time to time you’ll have that one brilliant but grossly tangential asset on a team who leaves you wondering if they’re manic or cracked out from the weekend. Who’s in infrastructure and hasn’t sent a few sleep-deprived and cringey status updates out at 6am :D Okay okay okay fine, it’s an internet comment section I don’t have to be PC. I think this one’s coke.
palmotea 7mo ago
> But I have read some of his emails, and all of the ones I have seen are full of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization errors. I would not gotten out of sixth grade if I wrote like that. I kinda assumed that was (at least partly) a "flex," basically doing something dumb to show you're such hot stuff you can get away with it. It's like Sam Altman writing in lowercase all the time.
- optimalsolver 7mo ago
  Or SBF playing Legends on investor calls.
- Der_Einzige 7mo ago
  Funny. Sam Altman is also accused by his own sister of being a diddler!
lebca 7mo ago
I used to know someone wealthy whose continued wealth relied on working with local and state governments. This person's public correspondence in lawsuits and with local government officials was purposefully littered with spelling, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization errors. When I asked them about it, their response was that it was on purpose so that they seemed less smart and thus less threatening, with the hope that they would get more favorable rulings and contracts by not seeming like "one of the big entities." I'm not asking you to believe me on this, but sharing it more as an anecdote of: something on the surface is sometimes not the reality of what's underneath.
- PlunderBunny 7mo ago
  I remember being told that many of the spelling/grammar mistakes in (English) menus for ethnic restaurants were deliberate to make the (English native speaking) customers feel superior. (Also not saying I believe this at all, just relating an anecdote).
- ddq 7mo ago
  In addition, it broadcasts that the sender is too busy with all their important work to spend time refining and proofreading, that you're getting their raw, unfiltered thoughts directly from them, not through an assistant, and that their time is more valuable than yours so the burden is on you to parse their stream of consciousness jumble for precious nuggets of their exclusive wisdom. The semiotics make sense, plus it's just easier and faster.
  - lifestyleguru 7mo ago
    The same with medical doctors. Funnily once in financial subreddit someone claiming to be a doctor from maybe Croatia asked for financial or early retirement advice, but the post was a word salad with misspellings and errors. Commenters immediately reacted that their writing is as illegible as probably their handwriting is, by the way the person reacted one can see that's really a doctor. Some people have superiority complex and reeky pile of irate thoughts in their heads, and you're very lucky if nothing in your life depends on these kind of people.
throwjefferey 7mo ago
He was probably more impressive in-person.
andrewflnr 7mo ago
I've found that problem solving intelligence and language skills are not that strongly correlated. He clearly had some kind of skill to keep his operation running, even before you consider the more cynical explanations in the other replies.
- colechristensen 7mo ago
  He was an asset being managed by intelligence service officers, this is the only explanation. A failing math teacher at a New York prep school leading to a job at Bear Stearns and then as a wealth manager for billionaires... let's say it doesn't add up unless there were other reasons than his own ambitions and organization skills. Mossad or the Russians engineered his life.
  - Der_Einzige 7mo ago
    John Kiriakou Openly says he had to be mossad.
    - colechristensen 7mo ago
      John Kiriakou talks a lot. Not that I don't think things he says are convincing, but he sure has a lot to say for a former CIA officer.
  - fatherwavelet 7mo ago
    It only doesn't add up if you are viewing him like Warren Buffet in terms of finance. Obviously, his audited track record of returns is nowhere to be found. It very much all adds up if you view Epstein as a financial genius in terms of financial crimes. This idea he was some intelligence created stooge is just absurd. I would suspect he was an intelligence asset exactly because of his ability to launder money and commit financial crimes. His wealth came from taking a cut. The size of his wealth was a reflection of the amount of financial crimes committed. That level of financial crime is how you get a sweetheart deal to keep those crimes in the shadows. Also the kind of thing that would get you suicided. This podcast/social media narrative that he was a created intelligence asset to blackmail the rich and powerful is probably misdirection to not focus on the actual financial crimes. The cover up has been executed to perfection considering the misdirection narratives have taken on a life of their own and we know basically nothing about the financial crimes he commited.
jalapenoi 7mo ago
somehow he was allowed to teach college classes without a degree, doors just open like that when you’re part of the tribe of pedophiles
doublerabbit 7mo ago
An email is an email. I used to talk to contacts like that all the time and they did too. These are quick interchanges with folk. The grammar police as well as PC became a thing and now everyone is expected to construct paragraphs of text without any grammatical errors otherwise you're mobbed and lynched. Just because you're expecting full pronunciation doesn't mean others do. I'd rather write with laziness and short hand than having to punctuate a whole paragraph and bore the person to death like this paragraph.
bawolff 7mo ago
> But I have read some of his emails, and all of the ones I have seen are full of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization errors. I would not gotten out of sixth grade if I wrote like that. I'd more focus on the ideas being expressed being incoherent. Spelling is surface level, but that word salad made no sense.
- rob74 7mo ago
  Spelling is a courtesy to the person who has to make sense of what you send them.
astrange 7mo ago
He was probably dyslexic. I know people who type like that too but normal in person.
imetatroll 7mo ago
It has to be a "my time is worth more than your time" flex.
fatherwavelet 7mo ago
I listened to the two hour interview that was posted. It sounds nothing like this. He was extremely well spoken. How carefully he spoke is what stood out most in the interview to me.
furyofantares 7mo ago
> I would not gotten out of sixth grade if I wrote like that.
clownpenis_fart 7mo ago
[dead]
commandlinefan 7mo ago
> full of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization errors I can spell correctly in a few different languages without having to think about it. I suspect you can, too. I can do a lot of math in my head that Jeffery Epstein probably couldn't have done with a calculator. I'm not a billionaire, though, and I never will be. The kind of smart - "street smart", it's sometimes called - that makes you that kind of rich is a different kind of smart that shows up as being a competent writer. Make no mistake, though, it wasn't stupidity or incompetence that got him where he was.
- sallycarmen 7mo ago
  I can’t stand people putting a man on a pedestal just because they are ‘rich’. Lots and lots of men pimp others to do the work, mafia style. You don’t need to be clever to do that, just nasty and in his case very dirty.
sallycarmen 7mo ago
Agree. Steven pinker the Harvard professor said Epstein was not an intellectual and incredibly stupid. He couldn’t have a conversation either him and Epstein spoke like a teenager.

moralestapia 7mo ago

I think that ... given one specific topic, few people understand it while the vast majority is completely oblivious to its workings. So they then hear someone who speaks like that, with a fast cadence and Andrew Tate's "Confidence" TM, and are inclined to think "yeah, the guy looks like he knows what he's talking about". But for people who have minimal knowledge about the thing, it's evident that said person is just stupid.

actionfromafar 7mo ago
It's on a different axis to stupid. These people play another kind of game, like scammers, they filter away people who can see through their bullshit. To them, actually learning a "normal" topic is a distraction. Their game is finding and exploiting weaknesses.
- TheOtherHobbes 7mo ago
  It's literally a marketing funnel for corruption. Having Smart People™ at your "parties" adds a layer of legitimacy and social proof you wouldn't get if you were Bubba from Nowhere Town. Some people will be attracted by the menu, some people won't realise what's happening until they see the video they're starring in. Either way, you own them.
  - prawn 7mo ago
    It's seemed to me that he was a habitual/obsessive networker. Someone up-thread described it as an urge to collect smart/impressive people, with the advantage being as you described. I suspect if you took away his horrible other interests, he'd still have been extremely sociable. Maybe aspects of blackmail/control are near-inevitable at the conjunction of criminal behaviour and power?
    - sallycarmen 7mo ago
      Sociable if you’re dumb like prince Andrew. Steven pinker the Harvard professor thought him an idiot. Said he was inane and a fraud who could only respond with stupid adolescent comments. Maybe somd like that sort of person and think they are fun. No doubt lots do, the guy down the pub who’s a laugh. Appeals to similarly dumb folk.

razingeden 7mo ago

I like using “astute businessman” as a backhanded compliment sometimes. Usually meaning the revenues and results are there .. although everything about their personal or professional ethos disgusts me. Eh. From time to time you’ll have that one brilliant but grossly tangential asset on a team who leaves you wondering if they’re manic or cracked out from the weekend. Who’s in infrastructure and hasn’t sent a few sleep-deprived and cringey status updates out at 6am :D Okay okay okay fine, it’s an internet comment section I don’t have to be PC. I think this one’s coke.

palmotea 7mo ago

> But I have read some of his emails, and all of the ones I have seen are full of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization errors. I would not gotten out of sixth grade if I wrote like that. I kinda assumed that was (at least partly) a "flex," basically doing something dumb to show you're such hot stuff you can get away with it. It's like Sam Altman writing in lowercase all the time.

optimalsolver 7mo ago
Or SBF playing Legends on investor calls.
Der_Einzige 7mo ago
Funny. Sam Altman is also accused by his own sister of being a diddler!

lebca 7mo ago

I used to know someone wealthy whose continued wealth relied on working with local and state governments. This person's public correspondence in lawsuits and with local government officials was purposefully littered with spelling, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization errors. When I asked them about it, their response was that it was on purpose so that they seemed less smart and thus less threatening, with the hope that they would get more favorable rulings and contracts by not seeming like "one of the big entities." I'm not asking you to believe me on this, but sharing it more as an anecdote of: something on the surface is sometimes not the reality of what's underneath.

PlunderBunny 7mo ago
I remember being told that many of the spelling/grammar mistakes in (English) menus for ethnic restaurants were deliberate to make the (English native speaking) customers feel superior. (Also not saying I believe this at all, just relating an anecdote).
ddq 7mo ago
In addition, it broadcasts that the sender is too busy with all their important work to spend time refining and proofreading, that you're getting their raw, unfiltered thoughts directly from them, not through an assistant, and that their time is more valuable than yours so the burden is on you to parse their stream of consciousness jumble for precious nuggets of their exclusive wisdom. The semiotics make sense, plus it's just easier and faster.
- lifestyleguru 7mo ago
  The same with medical doctors. Funnily once in financial subreddit someone claiming to be a doctor from maybe Croatia asked for financial or early retirement advice, but the post was a word salad with misspellings and errors. Commenters immediately reacted that their writing is as illegible as probably their handwriting is, by the way the person reacted one can see that's really a doctor. Some people have superiority complex and reeky pile of irate thoughts in their heads, and you're very lucky if nothing in your life depends on these kind of people.

throwjefferey 7mo ago

He was probably more impressive in-person.

andrewflnr 7mo ago

I've found that problem solving intelligence and language skills are not that strongly correlated. He clearly had some kind of skill to keep his operation running, even before you consider the more cynical explanations in the other replies.

colechristensen 7mo ago
He was an asset being managed by intelligence service officers, this is the only explanation. A failing math teacher at a New York prep school leading to a job at Bear Stearns and then as a wealth manager for billionaires... let's say it doesn't add up unless there were other reasons than his own ambitions and organization skills. Mossad or the Russians engineered his life.
- Der_Einzige 7mo ago
  John Kiriakou Openly says he had to be mossad.
  - colechristensen 7mo ago
    John Kiriakou talks a lot. Not that I don't think things he says are convincing, but he sure has a lot to say for a former CIA officer.
- fatherwavelet 7mo ago
  It only doesn't add up if you are viewing him like Warren Buffet in terms of finance. Obviously, his audited track record of returns is nowhere to be found. It very much all adds up if you view Epstein as a financial genius in terms of financial crimes. This idea he was some intelligence created stooge is just absurd. I would suspect he was an intelligence asset exactly because of his ability to launder money and commit financial crimes. His wealth came from taking a cut. The size of his wealth was a reflection of the amount of financial crimes committed. That level of financial crime is how you get a sweetheart deal to keep those crimes in the shadows. Also the kind of thing that would get you suicided. This podcast/social media narrative that he was a created intelligence asset to blackmail the rich and powerful is probably misdirection to not focus on the actual financial crimes. The cover up has been executed to perfection considering the misdirection narratives have taken on a life of their own and we know basically nothing about the financial crimes he commited.

jalapenoi 7mo ago

somehow he was allowed to teach college classes without a degree, doors just open like that when you’re part of the tribe of pedophiles

doublerabbit 7mo ago

An email is an email. I used to talk to contacts like that all the time and they did too. These are quick interchanges with folk. The grammar police as well as PC became a thing and now everyone is expected to construct paragraphs of text without any grammatical errors otherwise you're mobbed and lynched. Just because you're expecting full pronunciation doesn't mean others do. I'd rather write with laziness and short hand than having to punctuate a whole paragraph and bore the person to death like this paragraph.

bawolff 7mo ago

> But I have read some of his emails, and all of the ones I have seen are full of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization errors. I would not gotten out of sixth grade if I wrote like that. I'd more focus on the ideas being expressed being incoherent. Spelling is surface level, but that word salad made no sense.

rob74 7mo ago
Spelling is a courtesy to the person who has to make sense of what you send them.

astrange 7mo ago

He was probably dyslexic. I know people who type like that too but normal in person.

imetatroll 7mo ago

It has to be a "my time is worth more than your time" flex.

fatherwavelet 7mo ago

I listened to the two hour interview that was posted. It sounds nothing like this. He was extremely well spoken. How carefully he spoke is what stood out most in the interview to me.

furyofantares 7mo ago

> I would not gotten out of sixth grade if I wrote like that.

clownpenis_fart 7mo ago

[dead]

commandlinefan 7mo ago

> full of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization errors I can spell correctly in a few different languages without having to think about it. I suspect you can, too. I can do a lot of math in my head that Jeffery Epstein probably couldn't have done with a calculator. I'm not a billionaire, though, and I never will be. The kind of smart - "street smart", it's sometimes called - that makes you that kind of rich is a different kind of smart that shows up as being a competent writer. Make no mistake, though, it wasn't stupidity or incompetence that got him where he was.

sallycarmen 7mo ago
I can’t stand people putting a man on a pedestal just because they are ‘rich’. Lots and lots of men pimp others to do the work, mafia style. You don’t need to be clever to do that, just nasty and in his case very dirty.

sallycarmen 7mo ago

Agree. Steven pinker the Harvard professor said Epstein was not an intellectual and incredibly stupid. He couldn’t have a conversation either him and Epstein spoke like a teenager.