in

Every single prominent guest appearance at Stars - I mean, when I grind hardcore instead of just playing 1 Spin a day for a training site status - makes me steam like Titanic despite using better hotkeys than built-in ones.

Why is it so difficult for Stars developers to make the title bar of a table ****ing flash (at least in white, leave alone red like on old iPoker or making the felt switch through all the colours of the rainbow) when it's my turn?

It looks like I know what kind of an AHK script I have to write on Monday

coon74, I hope you can enlighten me somehow with your thread, otherwise I will remove the sub. thx

In what exactly area do you want me to enlighten you?

Do you want me to explain to you how bad it is to have big desires or goals (because it hurts not to achieve them)? Do you want me to try to make you more equanimous? Do you want me to show why Stars' (and other sites') changes are by no means a tragedy?

2nd one pls

Well... what's the thing that's worrying you the most now, out of those things that you can't change?

I'm not sure if you read lapka's (or Miss_lonely_hearts's) blog, but if not, here's the most helpful gem I've found there so far - a guide on stopping being afraid of making dramatic changes to one's life:



Check it out, especially the dwindling cash experiment that is described starting at 13:17. It's designed to help remove the fear of going broke, which those who decide to change their occupation and follow their true destination often experience.

With regard to my own 'poker career', I've established that I need to earn only $100K lifetime in order to retire comfortably. (The discussion about being a Nicaraguan landlord is somewhat jocular, there are other ways to have passive income, like investing into index funds, and it's better to mix investment types if possible.)

Well, I understand that I'm rather an exception than the rule, but everyone has their personal finite amount of money that's sufficient for 'total happiness'.

In the classic Soviet novel / film 'The Little Golden Calf' , after acquiring 1M rubles, which officially equalled $500K at the time (in 1931), the legendary swindler Ostap Bender asks his partner in crime, Shura Balaganov, how much he needs for happiness. Shura answers, '100 rubles'. Ostap then clarifies, 'How much do you need for total [lifetime] happiness?', Shura thinks for less than 3 seconds and answers, '6400'. He ends up being given 50K, but it's amazing how precisely he was able to calculate how much he needed.

Now I proceed to thinking how much work I need to put in to get there... and realise how little any lost pot or policy change matters because I'll still only have to spend a few months or at most a few years to get there. And I'm quite young yet and decently educated in case online poker crashes totally. (But as long as it's offered and there's no huge economic crisis, the micros will be beatable for a couple K a month because there will be enough recreationals willing to spend a hundred or a few a month on gambling.)

Leave alone that money doesn't matter as much as figuring out what your real needs are and which of your needs are not intrinsic but false (imposed by the society).

But retirement is of course not the end of life

When asking his above question, Mr Bender meant the money needed for self-sustenance (he and his partners were concerned only with their pleasure, not the public wellbeing... there's no wonder that Ostap's enterprise ended really bad for him).

In his second (maybe first too?) book, Jared Tendler recommends to have two goals - minimum and maximum (read more about this method here (advertisement not intended) if you're unfamiliar with it).

The minimum monetary goal is self-sustenance. Anything you earn that is above that minimum, and often even more money, can be directed towards actually helping others.

Think about an activity / business that you could engage in that would improve the overall happiness of mankind, but you yet have no money for. Being able to do it (without being afraid of dying of hunger or cold before your effort starts giving fruit) can be your maximum goal.

I think I'm actually too cautious when I claim that the goal of self-sustenance should be achieved first... it's just that I personally can't yet think of a way I can be useful to other beings, so I occupate myself by earning money first But I won't aim for an astronomical amount before I figure out how to use it efficiently.

And I really care about being +EV to my opponents in terms of pleasure... which means that I have to be surrounded primarily by recreational opponents - grinding thin edges out of pros makes either them or me unhappy. (By recs and pros, I mean basically risk-seeking and risk-averse players, respectively.) That's why I don't like to move up.

With regard to being useful to a certain narrow circle of people (the family, an intimate partner)... I think they're a drop in the ocean of mankind, so I don't really want to devote my life to so few specific and randomly chosen (or not even chosen) people. But YMMV.

Regarding the societal pressure thing, here's an article about how detrimental it is to one's performance.

To Achieve Your Best Results, Put on Blinders

Also,

How To Compete Against Yourself: Don’t Do Your Best, Do Better Than Your Personal Average [aka 'focus on reducing your C-game likelihood and magnitude']

(grrr somehow deleted my relatively long message

I watched the video. At first I thought it was going to be one of those "positive" things where she proclaims positiveness to be the secret of life, and how being positive can just change everything. No, truth is the most important thing, ok?

So, I was pleasantly surprised since actually what she was talking of was truth. People can effectively pursue most things that they're interested in as long as they're passionate and hard-working. It's a shame that a lot of people aren't passionate about more things outside of sports, since there are plenty of amazing things out there waiting to be learnt. I'm not against sports, and I love football myself, but I think it's largely insignificant.

Some of the things she said seem a little ridiculous, like singing at the train station. I'm quite sceptical that this would even make you more comfortable, if you weren't a good singer. But still, I think the overall point she makes is a good one. I think people lock themselves in a certain rhythm, or a way of life if you like, and quite often it's not a great way of life. They neglect many important things, but who can blame them? They have a lot of pressure on their backs to do x,y and z. However, I think it's very important to do things, new things, and to help others. I think it's probably more important than a lot think it is.

Regarding your question. I'm still waiting for the answer. There isn't anything that immediately springs to mind that I'm uncomfortable about. I don't care for wealth at all, so that's money out of the window. I don't worry about jobs because I'm passionate about a wide range of different subjects/topics, so that's gone. Anything else? I mean, I guess I wouldn't be comfortable turning around in a lift when everyone else is facing the other way, but that's hardly significant? right? maybe that's next on my list

edit: Are you Russian? Do you teach Russian? I've loved the language since I lived with 6 random Russian's last year in Budapest.

I'm glad that the video has been helpful!

The singing and turning experiments are not exactly designed to make you more comfortable doing weird things. They're to help you reduce the fear of being uncomfortable, the tension of social anxiety.

My art teacher at secondary school told that a friend of hers (or maybe herself, idr), a piano teacher, liked to ask her students if they were able to just scream as loud as they could, right there, in the classroom. Of course they were uncomfortable with that, but those screams helped release negative energy and, in so doing, reduce scenic anxiety.

have you done this yet? or anything similar? I guess I'm tempted to do it, but now my mind is saying "at least do it with somebody else" and "meh, next year you can try it" I guess this confirms the FEAR

I've been afraid of doing it even in a forest where no one could hear me

Speaking of simple things that people can't do that simply, I've recently learned about 'doing nothing' and 'strong determination sitting' meditations. They're so genial, troll our society so much. Hang on, I'll x-post them in a few moments...

prop bet between me and ****... who can video themselves screaming in the middle of a city centre first? hehe

Nah, remember, I'm non-competent, I give up

Walking meditation ('a walk in the park')
Doing nothing (the 'light one')
Strong determination sitting (the 'hardcore one')

I will check them out tomorrow. Thanks for sharing.

So, I just read your personal thread from last year. How have things changed since then? If at all. I feel kind of bad for effectively saying "people just need to do new things" when it's quite clearly much more difficult than that for some people. Have you managed to develop any goals?

wow my avatar is reeeeallly f'in tilting me. gtta change this

I've just realised that the poker grind can be viewed as a light variation of strong determination sitting. Try grinding for an hour on [insert your least favourite poker software] with your mouth gagged so that you can't curse... how easy must it be to just keep silence and not throw anything against the wall while clicking buttons that are defying you?

Nope. It's hilarious to read that thread a year after and realise how little I've changed. In fact, I haven't changed much for 'bout tree fiddy years already.

T, where in Latin America? If you ever move there remember that Croats you meet there are not like me, you should stay away from them probably

India gurus, televangelists and bald meditators have one thing common: they are talking and talking (jesus holy buddha mohamed in his video he was after 24 minutes in the end of introduction), so even if you have attention span like elephant you cannot keep all that together, especially because there is nothing in base. And that make best conman, because if there is something in base, somebody can argument or disagree, but if you only hear nice words for at least forty minutes from clean and intelligent looking person he will basically suck up your brain to black hole of his ego

Right, verbosity is a big shortcoming of that dude, that's why I linked to the moments of the videos where he actually starts giving concrete instructions.

I'd say where if I knew it for sure. (I'm prone to changing my mind all the time.) I fail to understand your joke about Croats. Do you mean emigrants from Croatia or anyone else? What has made you think that they're so much less reliable than a Croat who stays in the home country?

No, you missed the point. Latin America countries rarely extradict convicts to Croatia. Croats have been escaping to these countries since ww2. Many of them are in drug business.

But you get it right that it was a joke. 1. There are of course normal citizens Croats in these countries 2. Who says that criminals cant be good friends?

Thanks for the heads up

I'm surprised that there are indeed decently sized Croatian diasporas in South America. Most of them, though, are those who escaped in the first half of the 20th century and their descendants.

I'm looking at your blog and one of a fellow Twister reg who has a job and has recently got a daughter... you two obviously have different values from mine, and what's making me especially optimistic about the future of online poker is that so many sharks move on from it to something more complex so fast that they don't take too much money lifetime out of the poker economy.

It looks almost as if men above 30 look down on poker as a childish videogame and let the kids in their 20s frolic with their toy, even though it's quite lucrative.

Thanks to the oldies for this generosity!

P.S. I want to remain a kid forever