Don't get a fake degree, makes you look like a scammer

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 20, 2022, 9:56 pm

There are a few shortcuts people look into when trying to push their authority:

• Degrees
• Certifications
• Membership of "credible sounding" associations (one of the reasons why during the preparation of "The Social Strategist" I sometimes told Ali to take out that "APA" membership from my description as it's not that credibility-enhancing)

And since that's what most other people do, I think you should think twice before going for it.

Generally speaking, my  advice would be:

Don't get a fake degree...

... Unless you plan on selling to idi... To power unaware folks, let's say.

But even then, it's risky because you give an easy target for anyone to attack.

For example, I was now preparing a review for "Radical Acceptance" and looked into the author's -Tara Brach- background.

Wikipedia listed two bachelor's degrees, and then she jumped straight to a Ph.D.

That seemed odd already.

The name of the institution for her Ph.D. was Fielding Graduate University, which raised further big red flags.

So I looked into it, and a simple glance at the institution's ownads already tells you a lot:

This feels a lot like a diploma mill type of organization.
Their description also adds more red flags:

 is an accredited nonprofit leader in blended graduate education, combining face‐to‐face and online learning.

Albeit the book was really good, the author has already lost some credibility and trust for me.

Even morality aside, it was also a bad strategic move in my opinion.
Brach writes about Buddhism/meditation/spirituality, fields that don't really have any accredited institutions -so there's no point in "forcing" any-.
And two, there's already enough fake gurus in the self-help industry that you should really go the extra mile to make sure you don't even remotely come across as one.