MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.
By popular demand we’ll have at least a few guest posts during the break. If you’d like to write one, please reach out, I’d like to find guest posts for the whole break!
Echo Chambers
The internet is full of echo chambers in which opposing viewpoints mostly don’t exist because of something like: selection bias, moderation, “the algorithm”, or another reason. Because I know you need some examples, there are a few you may already be familiar with:
A recent FlyerTalk post titled “Any Success Stories of Living Off [Manufactured Spend]?” is a perfect illustration of how we can get stuck in echo chambers without realizing it. The thread itself is rather short, and if you read it in its entirety you’d think that maybe a couple of people lived off of manufactured spend in the past but it’s probably not happening much anymore and might also have weird tax consequences. Everyone in the insulated forum is reinforcing what they already believe, and it makes sense because it’s aligns with their world views.
On the other hand though, I personally know at least a couple of dozen people that live off of manufactured spend, and I’m sure there are plenty more that I don’t know of. Also, I’m not a tax guy and I’m definitely not your tax guy, but it’s not hard to account for and to pay taxes on your manufactured spend based earnings. Based on my personal experience, the FlyerTalk thread is naive at best and gate keeping at worst, and it illustrates a lesson that can take you a long way in churning and manufactured spend:
Sometimes the prevailing discussion in your echo chamber is wrong, and you can use that to your advantage.
– MEAB
Or, to rephrase in Michael Scott form:
“Trust but verify – Ronald Reagan“
– MEAB
Happy holidays and I’ll see you next year!
(I think it was actually John Quincy Adams, but ok)