I once read advice by a successful author, who claimed that if you want to build up a loyal fanbase, then you want to have people who absolutely hate your work, because if nobody cares enough to hate your books then they’re not distinctive enough and nobody will love them either:
Even assuming that that’s true, phrasing it that way tempts people to think “well, no fans hate my book, so I should do things that make fans hate my book”.
It’s a bad sign that nobody pays for your product with a stolen credit card too, for a similar reason: if your sales are low, there may not be enough sales that even one sale using a stolen credit card is expected. But you wouldn’t want to say “nobody’s buying my book using a stolen credit card, so let’s see how I can increase the sales using stolen credit cards”.
Even assuming that that’s true, phrasing it that way tempts people to think “well, no fans hate my book, so I should do things that make fans hate my book”.
It’s a bad sign that nobody pays for your product with a stolen credit card too, for a similar reason: if your sales are low, there may not be enough sales that even one sale using a stolen credit card is expected. But you wouldn’t want to say “nobody’s buying my book using a stolen credit card, so let’s see how I can increase the sales using stolen credit cards”.
Sure.