[AaronBrown]

It's not quite disregard, it's more like a basketball coach telling his players, "don't look at the scoreboard, just try to make baskets and stop the other team." You generally play your best by concentrating on the decisions at hand rather than trying to win everything all at once. So you care about money as a poker player, and you care about the score as a basketball player, but you don't let that concern interfere with making the best decisions at each point in time.

I agree that people who lie about their results, especially people who lie to themselves or don't keep track, are unlikely to improve. Good poker demands total objectivity, and that starts with objectivity with respect to yourself.

The other half of the secret is to notice other people's attitudes toward money. Bad players aren't thinking of the odds or the strategy, fear and greed are at war in their brains. The higher the stakes, the more money they've lost, the tireder they are, the more emotional they are; the stronger these tendencies. You can let their irrational attitudes toward money work for you.