Take a Great Job or Play Poker?

[sfer]

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it was my best effort to simplify the situation. if he chooses poker, he's incredibly immature and short-sighted. everyone is entitled to come kick me in the nuts if I play poker for a living after I flunk out this semester

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Fixed your post.

[cocked&locked]

I don't know if this has been mentioned or not b/c I haven't read the entire thread, but for me it would come down to 2 words:

"potential regret"

You obviously have a talent, or you wouldn't have been offered the job. You have indicated that the job would be interesting.

Ask yourself this question honestly: Looking back on your choice, how would you feel 20 years down the road if you passed on this career opportunity - if you continued to win - if you went bust? The answer(s) would be enough for me to make my decision.

[sthief09]

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it was my best effort to simplify the situation. if he chooses poker, he's incredibly immature and short-sighted. everyone is entitled to come kick me in the nuts if I play poker for a living after I flunk out this semester

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Fixed your post.

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that's not funny because it's a very real possibility

[jba]

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a [censored] big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose DIY and wondering who the [censored] you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing [censored] junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, [censored] up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons.

Who needs reasons when you've got poker?

[jba]

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I'm in the same situation as OP and i pay $50 per month for health. I figure he's young and healthy so doesn't need insanely good coverage

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someone, somewhere along the line, is subsidizing this. I'm not sure of your situation but if you live in the U.S. someone is covering a good chunk of your bill, I'm about 99.9% sure (unless it's really, really sparse insurance).

[littlejohn]

Hi leghhigh,

Granted, I read most of the long list of posts to the OP quickly, but I don't remember seeing that people told him that he couldn't do it. It appeared to be more opinions of which choice he should make rather than telling him that he couldn't make poker work. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

Either way, I didn't say it as well as I wanted to, but I like what Maxpower said - "I was a smart kid once. Now I look back on that kid and realize he wasn't as smart as he thought he was." I really second his statement.

On a more somber note, I think it's possible to look back at either decision with regret. Heck, I even look back at good decisions I made in my life and wonder what would have happened if I'd chosen the other path - human nature I guess.

Are you in a situation where you don't have any good older mentors? There have to be some people of experience out there that you respect, I think we are never too young to have good mentors in our lives. Maybe you can find some - albeit maybe not the same mentor for each aspect of your life if you can't find that rounded a person. But perhaps an intellectual mentor, a leadership mentor, a community mentor, etc.

I'm not saying that you can't accomplish anything you want to - I am a firm believer that you can. You may be able to avoid some mistakes though with sound sage advice - if it comes from the right people.

[littlejohn]

I suppose I agree with you -

I do think there is some room for both perspectives though. It seems that the brilliant youth's choices can be enhanced by solid experience and wisdom. Or that there is a compromise of sorts which yields the best result.

To be sure, youthful exuberance, brilliance, and unending confidence is all part of what makes people successful early in life. At the same time, what keeps people successful later in life is combining those qualities with experience and wisdom. It seems like in this dicussion, the responders are trying to convey that experience and wisdom in their opinions.

[Blarg]

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take it from a guy who graduated in 2000 with a great business degree and landed a great job just out of school... play cards for as long as you can support yourself and still enjoy it... even the greatest job in business is miserable a huge amount of the time, so many stupid ass people, in every company, on every level, that make it to where they are cause they play certain roles well in the eyes of certain people... but when you get to deal with them... its a total nightmare, also, you'll find that what ever industry you are in (esp. consulting, which i am also in) you will wonder what exactly you accomplished on any given day... 95% of what goes never ends up having any kind of real effect on the world or even the bottom line -

at least with poker, you have a very simple goal... win - and as long as you find that goal worthy, you will enjoy cards a lot more than any job - and with a good degree, the jobs will always be there if you change your mind -

go play cards in the paradise man! you should be slapped for thinking of going the other way [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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This assessment and experience of life in the workplace is probably far more common than any other.

Which isn't to say it might not be best to just live that way anyway. There's a lot to be said for money and security and social acceptance.

But the idea that work is fun and challenging and you'll be working with plenty of hot chicks and great people in companies that are run rationally where good ideas count and can help you get to the top is by and large a fairy tale. Competence is far from the only way people rise to their positions, and businesses are run accordingly. They often run despite their leadership and atmosphere, not because of it. The workplace is hardly a temple of enlightenment, nor one of fellowship.

I'd say that in the average workplace you have to prepare to deal with legions of incompetents and ass-kissing, back stabbing morons, the people they frighten, and the rare people floundering about in the middle of the mess trying to keep out of either camp. Lots of people are pretty much freaks who love ass kissing so they don't mind a completely corrupt and imbecilic environment, but you also have to be prepared to either do it yourself or publicly express approval of those who do.

You'll probably work in this type of environment whether you make $10,000 a year or $10,000,000 a year. It's just easier to put on blinders about it when you make $10,000,000 a year. Then again, how many people really make $10,000,000 a year as solace for being in a completely fukked up and demeaning social environment? Be prepared for the situation of not being top dog on the shyt heap, but buried somewhere in the middle of it. Prepare for the life of being a weasel or being weaseled.

And try to get that out of your system when you go home at night. If you can look in the mirror and feel good about it, you know you've lost your soul.

Sorry that's all so negative, but the workplace utopia crap you see on some of these threads is just bunk for the most part.

[Blarg]

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If you make 200K a year the cost is fairly insignificant. I pay about $200/month for insurance (2500 deductible). For $500/month you can probably get insurance comparable to any employer plan with low deductible.

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Insurance cost is based on lots of things that a healthy young guy won't have to worry about. Individuals don't have to average out the expensive costs of others, which is what happens in the workplace.

Compare that healthy young man to someone who is in a noted high stress occupation where plenty of people work excessive hours and have an incredible rate of heart attacks and strokes, like law. Those heart attacks and high blood pressure medications add a lot to the price of the average policy holder in a group plan.

So do the wives of the rich men at the top who habitually go to the doctors just to have something to do and get attention.

So do mothers who are getting prenatal care, then having their babies in hospitals, and constantly take them back after birth for shots, check ups, and often little more than hand holding. I know quite a few women who are obsessed with going to the doctor. It's become a weird thing in our culture; many people go constantly. It really adds up the costs of policies fast. Anyway, all the people pumping out kids have plenty of medical costs for them. Kids get sick and hurt all the time. As far as sick -- nearly constantly. There's never a time in the workplace that some cold isn't going around from someone who brought it in from her kid.

That stuff bloats up policy costs enormously, and healthy single young guys don't have to worry about subsidizing other people in his policy costs.

[Blarg]

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Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a [censored] big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose DIY and wondering who the [censored] you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing [censored] junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, [censored] up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons.

Who needs reasons when you've got poker?

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That was a friggin great movie.

At first I thought your quote was from Fight Club, where the guy is talking about his Ikea lifestyle, also a howler of a monologue on the same theme, then recognized your bit as from Trainspotting.

Kudos for placing it in the thread.