Poker gives a lot, but takes a lot too if you're not careful...(long)

[nebben]

Excellent Idea. As a corollary, I think that training Africans to play poker full time would drive down the need for HIV drugs, as their constant play would undoubtably take away from their social skills, thus decreasing their ability to propogate such a disease.

[Loci]

Wow.

[Subfallen]

[ QUOTE ]
It (poker) has created a nice chunk of wealth is now in the hands of "Generation X" as you call it...

[/ QUOTE ]

Huh? A "nice chunk of wealth"? Perspective, man, perspective.

[TStoneMBD]

this post meant alot to me, and hit me fairly hard. ive recognized these problems that you bring up, but you make me feel the negativity of it on a higher level. at the same time, you make me feel better about the situation because you've shown me that i can change it. that the situation can be improved.

poker has taught me a whole lot more than just how to make money, and lots of it. its taught me how to approach things from a mathematical perspective. i am a smarter person in all things because of poker. aside from money, poker is a constructive dedication that i lead, because it allows me to grow as a person in many ways.

however, poker has stunted my growth in other things, as you mention. right now my focus is to build a base for me to create great wealth. i will worry about developing myself socially and morally in the upcoming years.

however, despite how accurate your post was, in my mind, for the first several paragraphs, the last few paragraphs seem rather inaccurate.

i suppose that you can say that poker players create wealth out of thin air, but that is not truly the case. we do not create wealth. we merely transfer the wealth of others onto ourselves. you cannot teach a village how to magically create millions of dollars for their own benefit through the means of productivity. all you can do is teach them how to make money for themselves, through the loss of others, while enduring the very same moral proclivities that we as poker players must accept.

poker is a zero sum game. teaching a nation how to beat poker doesn't benefit the world. nor does taking somebody's money with the intent of giving it to somebody else. productivity is how you eliminate poverty, not the transfering of wealth. as poker players, we are not productive by virtually any means.

[Blarg]

Poker alone won't make most anyone either perfectly happy or productive in a way that matters much outside themselves, but neither will working most jobs. The problem is trying to use your work to solve your life, or even wanting life to be solved in the first place.

Our souls are much too complex, fickle, and even arbitrary to find complete fulfillment in any one thing, not even with the persons we might love most in the world, nor the landscapes and habits we most cherish and take greatest comfort in. That doesn't reflect a fault in ourselves or the choices we may have made; it comes free with every choice and every consequence. It's the price we pay for being alive.

Don't blame your regret or boredom directly on poker or anything else; you would have been bored no matter what you did sooner or later, and accumulated regrets inevitably no matter what you did. If you wish to blame yourself, find blame in looking to any one thing to provide you happiness, and narrowing your world accordingly. It's irrelevant whether it's poker or being a doctor or any other kind of job; your soul needs more, and it's up to you to provide it. It silly to expect poker or any job to do any such thing. No spirit is that narrow. Give your spirit a little more room to expand and don't search for easy, final answers. Your life will always be an unsolved riddle. All you can do is keep trying, and remember to enjoy the puzzle. If you think anything is going to solve it or that it's even its nature to be solved, neither poker nor any other type of job are up to that task. You're just asking too much of too little. You've got to fill in the blanks yourself, every day for the rest of your life, and not expect anything to come along and do it for you.

[Mark1808]

Poker players spend and invest their money which in turn helps the economy. Full time players means more games are available so let's say a scientist working on the cure for AID's can relax a little and find an online game. The free market works. Adam Smith lives. Do what brings you true joy and you will benefit the world and yourself. If you care about the less fortunate make a ton of money and give it to them. The Capatilist system works because individuals are free to persue any legal money making opportunity they desire.