---
title: "Boring and dangerous professional"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2026/03/boring-and-dangerous-professional/
last_updated: 2026-03-12
---


[Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/#presenting-like-a-professional) and [How to Unsubscribe from Modern Luxury](https://aphyr.com/posts/406-how-to-unsubscribe-from-modern-luxury):

> I don't want to bother people like this; I think it's unreasonably rude. I
> still start with the official support channels and escalate gradually. I like
> Patrick McKenzie's strategy of presenting oneself as a boring, dangerous
> professional. However, I have also found that in the Annoyance Economy, one of
> the ways to get things done is to find specific people with power, and annoy
> them right back.
>
> [...]
>
> Instead, you want to communicate with the bank in a manner which suggests that
> you're an organized professional who is capable of escalating the matter if
> the bank does not handle it themselves. You do not yell – not that you're ever
> verbally speaking with anyone, but you wouldn't yell in a letter, either. You
> do not bluster. ("I will tell on you to my attorney" is, generally, bluster,
> and that's bluster that is common to people who do not actually have
> attorneys.) You instead present as if you're collecting a paper trail.
>
> Mean words cannot hurt a bank. Threats cannot hurt a bank. Paper trails,
> though, are terrifying to regulated institutions. Your bank's customer support
> representatives are taught to evaluate whether someone looks like they're
> competent and collecting a paper trail. If they are, the CS rep is supposed to
> stop touching the case immediately and instead escalate them to a supervisor
> or to the legal department.
>
> [...]
>
> The thing which causes regulatory incidents is well-organized people taking
> paper trails to regulators which allow a regulator to trivially follow up with
> an investigatory letter. Accordingly, anyone who sounds like a well-organized
> professional with a paper trail is a problem to be swiftly addressed.

This is gold. Do you already have your own [pkm]({{< ref "/tags/pkm" >}})?
I recommend [LogSeq](https://logseq.com/) or [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/).