There's an idea that I can borrow from the startup community, particularly from the Y Combinator crowd, and that's the concept of contrarianism and doomerism. These philosophies often make you seem smart, especially if you're already someone intelligent. They can make you appear insightful and right about things most of the time. However, they don't necessarily make you rich or successful.

Contrarianism and doomerism might enhance your intellectual image, but they won't lead to wealth or success. To achieve success, you need to be a bit delusional and work against the natural entropy of the universe and the world around you. This is something I'm contemplating right now, as the current outlook seems very bleak. Everywhere you look, there are problems.

It's easy for a smart person to predict failures. It's easy to point your finger and say, "This is going to fail," "This is going to collapse," or "This is going to break." However, simply predicting failure won't make you rich or successful.

To truly succeed, you must find a way to be contrarian against the contrarians. You need to discover something where you can snatch success from the jaws of failure and be right about it. When you do, the world will reward you.