Quote:
Originally Posted by DEKE01
There is a great bit of internet wisdom out there succinctly stated as , "You do you."
That guy has lived a long life and most people would say he has done well for himself, but you are sure you know how he should life his life better than he does? MYOB
Everyone has their own measuring stick for success and happiness. Most people would be bored to tears sitting at a poker table but most of us here think it is a fun pass time. If you are doing it for money, unless you are the creme de la creme of poker gods, as in the top 1% of the top 1%, there are almost certainly things you could be doing to make more money.
We can dig this other angle of poker together.
I'd start off with, why be a poker pro at all? After all, you ''objectively'' aren't helping anyone, aren't servicing anyone. The better you are, the more money you take from other poker players, and I don't think they appreciate it much. On the other hand, let's say you're a rice farmer, well you're giving something back in exchange of money, and the more rice you make, the more money you make, and the less costly rice becomes, and everybody wins so to speak. Because in the end, he grows rice, other guy grows tomatoes; and everybody has a varied plate filled with goodness.
Although, that POV is too grim and lacks the magnificence of life. Here, down here, you can be a pro gamer, a pro poker player, a pro musician; and make millions of dollar... and sure, none of that is ''necessary'', but life is beyond what's necessary in some way. For me, part of what's beautiful about humans, is that they do these kinds of things, and one day you're alone and in the dark, and you hear this piece of music that vibrates with your soul, and you think life isn't so bad after all.
For the 1%. Let's start with that being in the 1% does not mean you can be in the 1% always. Let's say you're the 1% poker pro, and you want to become the 1% 100 meter dash sprint runner. Well, there's gonna be that guy you know, in South Africa, that was born with amazing leg genetics and has been running since he was 5 years old. Like, you can work as hard as you want, you ain't winning the 100 meters dash against him.
That being said, I wholesomely agree that if you're in the 1% of any field, you probably can be in the top 5% of any other field. Also, when you're in the top 1%, the top 1% changes rapidly you know, when you're top 1%, there's a lot of people that wants your spot and are focusing on it, so it's very rare that someone stays in the top 1% for more than a decade, the competition is so high.
Also I think the top feels like eagles. Heard that from Dan Pena. Eagles are at the top. Eagles are alone. Let's imagine you're top 0,00001% of the top 1% of poker pro, well who's gonna teach you? Who else than yourself? The guy that wrote a poker book? That makes less money than you at playing poker, but had the diligence to write a book about it?
For the MYOB, well I guess that always applies. I've never had success giving people unsolicited advice, I just like doing it, maybe because I'm insecure I don't know, or maybe I want to help people, but it never works. People don't like advice much. If you help the fool, he's mad at you. If you help the wise, he'll be ungrateful down the line. So yeah, of course, success is your own measure of success, and if having a girl in your life and kids and a boring job makes you happy, well man, I'm right behind you, let's go! I dont know why giving people advice never works, I think humans likes suggestions more, makes them feel free, also I think that people watch more than they listen, so you can be the bloke that gives a million dollar advice, you're a bloke talking; but if you're The Rock and saying something stupid, everybody's listening to your advice. So yeah, it's like chimps man, they copy, so might as well lead with exemple. Anyway, I'm still curious as to why giving advice is so bad, I never understood the depths of it