Who can you trust fully?

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (the original) is a fantastic movie.

It’s the type of movie I miss: easy to watch, moves along quickly, a movie that’s not trying to be clever, not forcing itself to be brilliant, a slapstick comedy with clever dialogue and intricate plotting - it’s exactly what I wanted - a humorous distraction for 110 minutes.

If I had to summarize the plot, it’s two con men trying to scam money out of rich women in the French Riviera. Michael Caine is a sophisticated British artist, while Steve Martin is a slightly less refined (ok, in your face) American scammer. After an initial clash, they agree on a bet: the first to con $50,000 from the naive "United States Soap Queen," Glenne Headly, wins the right to stay in town while the other must leave.

This is a movie from 1988, and by now, we’ve seen every permutation of con movies, so you know the naive "United States Soap Queen" is nothing like what she seems.

What I found fascinating, beyond the entertainment, is that the movie reveals something true about trust and authenticity.

Charlie Munger’s evergreen famous quote comes into play here: “Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome.”

Look around. We trust our closest friends with our secrets, but maybe not with our startup ideas. We trust our family with our lives, but perhaps not with our passwords. We trust our colleagues' work ethic but lock our computers when we step away.

Look around the world we live in. If I were to challenge you, you’d probably have a handful of people you’d trust not to stab you in the back. The others, with the right incentives, will push into you an alligator pit in a heartbeat. No hesitation.

People born in the 70s or earlier often claim their generation was more trustworthy. But was it? Or did they have fewer opportunities to see trust broken? Social media doesn't create untrustworthy people - it just makes the betrayals more visible.

The truth is simpler and harder to accept: people act according to incentive - any time, any generation. The only difference is how well we can see those incentives at play.

Just like in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the most interesting part of the con isn't the con itself—it's how it reveals who we are when the stakes are high enough.

Anyway, the movie was fun. Made me laugh. And maybe made me a bit more honest about why I trust who I trust.

It also made me check: Steve Martin is 79, and Michael Caine is 91 - he retired from moviemaking last year.

Oof, talk about longevity and pursuing excellence in your craft. That’s worth another post.