Originally Posted by Jman28
Awesome questions MN,
They got me thinking about some things, so some of what's written below is probably more personal info/opinions than most ppl care to know, but I figured after writing it, I might as well post it.
This one is kind've a vague question. It depends how you measure success. I suppose though, in all ways you might measure it, I won't be as successful as I otherwise could be if I had more motivation.
I don't think there is a whole lot I can do about it though. I know a lot of people think lazy people are kind've pathetic, but I don't think it's as easy for me to be motivated to do things as it is for most people. What I mean is, I don't think it's as much my fault as most people probably do.
I think a lot of laziness is just part of the personality that you are born with. I've always been the way I am. Was always bored and unable to focus in school.
Besides having the tendency to be lazy in my personality, it was reinforced throughout school. I never did any work in school, but always was an A or B student just because the work was easy. I remember getting a mini lecture from teachers almost every year, "You know, Philip, you did fine this year, but things won't be so easy in 3rd grade. You're gonna have to start working harder."
"This won't cut it in Middle School"
"You're not gonna pass High School classes without doing the work"
It probably is a bad thing that I've been so lucky, because perhaps I would've been forced to learn to work hard.
Every year I didn't try and every year I was fine. Everything has always worked out for me, so I just kind've expect it to. I mean, I was a Philophy major with no plan for my future (which didn't worry me at all) and then poker came along.
I guess that brings me back to your question. I became a little bit obsessed with poker. I have an obsessive personality, and a competitive one. So I wanted to be the best. I still was too lazy to do work I found boring, like analyzing equity in spots, etc, but I found reading poker books and forums, and thinking about the game fascinating. And playing and seeing myself improving and making money was amazing.
So, I think I'm able to do 'work' if the work interests me. So I believe that if anything that comes along that I really badly want to do, I'll be interested in learning about and working at it.
I guess I'm fairly selfish. I don't think more than the average person though.
Hmmm. Tough question. I definitely care about other people. I have a a few very good friends, and of course family members, who I probably care about their wellbeing almost as much as my own.
Other than that though, most of my actions are motivated by self interest, though I think that's normal.
I do a lot of seemingly selfless things. I'm non confrontational, and a bit of a pushover, so I let other people get their way a lot. I don't do that out of caring for their happiness, but for my own comfort.
I think I'm a nice and friendly person. I help friends out all the time with their problems. People end up coming to me for advice a lot, and I always try to help. Part of it is because I want them to be happy, but a lot of it is because it makes me feel good about myself. Is that selfish?
I definitely have a problem with selfishness when it comes to poker. When a good friend of mine makes a big score, it's tough for me to be happy for them. Well, it used to be much tougher than it is now. Basically, I can be happy for a friend if they do well as long as they aren't doing better than me. Then I get jealous. Especially if I think I'm more deserving.
Luckily I do pretty well now, so when one of my friends final tables a big event, he can triple his roll and I can still have more money than him. Then I can be truly happy for him.
I know that's pretty lame of me. I'm not sure how to fix it though.
My main life goals are to not have to worry about money, have good friends, and start a family/be a good father. It would be cool to be completely filthy rich, but I'll be fine with being in the upper middle class. Looking back it looks like you didn't really ask about money I think. But there, I answered anyways.
I like writing. Maybe I'd like to write a book. One not related to poker would be cool, but I don't know yet what about. I'm still young and idealistic, so I have dreams now and then. I'd like to write movies and TV shows. Probably TV shows since I'm more into TV than movies.
I used to think that I wanted to be famous. But being an R level online celebrity has made me realize it's probably not as cool as I thought it might be.
As far as doing something significant, I dunno. I think there are a lot of problems with the world, of course. I always kind've assumed that anyone in a position of power knows what they're doing. I've started to realize that a lot of people who make decisions aren't all that smart, just because most people aren't. The general public has no understanding of a lot of important concepts, mostly logic and probability related. It completely blows my mind that anyone making huge decisions doesn't understand logic and bayesian probability in and out.
I just wrote out a few paragraphs about government before realizing that I dont know **** about government and I'd sound stupid. The basic idea is that I believe the public needs to be better educated in order for a lot of things to work better. I was always interested in education. I think I might've ended up teaching if I hadn't found poker.
If I were to do something significant, (I think this is what you mean) it would have to do with rehauling the public education system. I took a pretty cool class on philosophy of education once actually. I really enjoyed it. Anyways, I'm not sure how I could possibly acheive it, but I am pretty sure that if I were put in a position to change public education, I would definitely change it for the better.
As for working to acheive something like that, I'm sure laziness would get in the way. As well as the fact that I'm a college dropout gambler who none of the public would respect as an authority on anything.
I think I mentioned in earlier posts, but the opportunity I have right now with poker is too good to worry about anything else right now. I think what I should do know is work to make as much money as I can, so that when I have the drive and opportunity to do something else, I'll have the freedom to also.
if we jam 25% air villain has 20% equity while he needs 25%.
