Why do they keep giving me money?
Mar. 3rd, 2005 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksI received an e-mnail from Financial Spreads yesterday offering me "£100 for two hours of your time". Being a hardened cynic, I wondered whether this was a cunning manoeuvre that would end up with me buying a timeshare in Rumania, but, apparently not. FinSpreads has customer focus groups and it is willing to pay for them. So I shall wend my merry way to One America Square at 12.30pm next Wednesday and tell them what I think, and get paid for the privilege.
A humorous by-product of this is that the CEO of Finspreads (Kevin Taylor) and the chief trader (Stuart Lane) were at City Index when I was fired from that august operation. No blame accrued to anyone but me for that one, so, no hard feelings. But I would think that they would be rather bemused to see me as part of one of their customer focus groups — mainly being amazed that I am (a) still alive and (b) allowed in the building.
It was a horrific day at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel meeting today. Once again, all my fault. I have come to the conclusion that I am utterly incapable of interacting with the rest of the human race on any rational level whatsoever. I try to hack it, I really do, but I just can't. The best thing would be for me to lock myself away, a la Antony Sher in "Home", in this room, carry on producing my newsletter from this desk, and never meet anyone again. This would at least eliminate the "misery loves company" danger.
For the first time in history, it's actually possible to do this. Tesco can deliver the food, Amazon can deliver everything else, and I can work remotely.
Cleared the Party $120 bonus this eveing and won a few dollars on top, making me £160 up for the month of March so far (although I see that my watch still thinks that it's the 31st February...).
Last night I counted up all the money that I have not yet written to book and it came to a little over $12,000. Wow. Where did it all come from?
There is a conventional wisdom, first spouted, I think, by Holden in Big Deal, that one thing the top poker players all had in common was a complete lack of understanding of the value of money. The implication was that this was what was needed to become a top player, but I wonder if this attitude might be the inevitable result of playing for high stakes. I mean, is £30 a lot of money? I have no idea. What about £1,000? Well, it isn't life-changing, so I would say no, it isn't. But then I still baulk at paying a score for a cab and I certainly wouldn't pay a grand extra to travel club class. I suppose my point is that the sense of what money is worth is getting distorted, but isn't dead.
Cameron Angus was in Vegas for three months at the back-end of last year, playing up to 10 sit'n'goes a day for $200 a pop, and he said that his most irrational money act came about when his Internet connection went down in his flat. He promptly picked up his laptop, walked next door, booked into a hotel room for the night (cost, $80) just to check his e-mails.
The problem was, $80 was meaningless, in the context of the fact that he wanted to check his e-mails and he wanted to do it there and then. In a sense I am wandering that way. I still won't spend cash like it's water, but if I want something and I want it now, its actual cost doesn't seem relevant. So a small thing like not having to queue 20 minutes for a car (Alamo) but instead getting it straight away (Avis) is worth an extra £50 in car hire cost a week. A year or so ago that would not have been the case.
This is a slippery route to travel down and I am not sure that I want to take it. Higher level limit games (say, $15-$30 and above) require inidifference to four-figure swings if you know that they were the "rub of the green" (if you aren't indifferent, then you are liable to go on tilt at the bad luck). The danger is that that indifference carries over into real life. Or, maybe, that isn't a danger. Maybe that is an attitude to life and money devoutly to be wished. Darned if I know. Doubt that I'm thinking that straight at the moment anyway.
Some noice reposnses from old GH subscribers, but blogs are obviously too complex for them. Instead of posting a comment, they send me an e-mail! Old zine habits die hard, obviously.
A humorous by-product of this is that the CEO of Finspreads (Kevin Taylor) and the chief trader (Stuart Lane) were at City Index when I was fired from that august operation. No blame accrued to anyone but me for that one, so, no hard feelings. But I would think that they would be rather bemused to see me as part of one of their customer focus groups — mainly being amazed that I am (a) still alive and (b) allowed in the building.
It was a horrific day at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel meeting today. Once again, all my fault. I have come to the conclusion that I am utterly incapable of interacting with the rest of the human race on any rational level whatsoever. I try to hack it, I really do, but I just can't. The best thing would be for me to lock myself away, a la Antony Sher in "Home", in this room, carry on producing my newsletter from this desk, and never meet anyone again. This would at least eliminate the "misery loves company" danger.
For the first time in history, it's actually possible to do this. Tesco can deliver the food, Amazon can deliver everything else, and I can work remotely.
Cleared the Party $120 bonus this eveing and won a few dollars on top, making me £160 up for the month of March so far (although I see that my watch still thinks that it's the 31st February...).
Last night I counted up all the money that I have not yet written to book and it came to a little over $12,000. Wow. Where did it all come from?
There is a conventional wisdom, first spouted, I think, by Holden in Big Deal, that one thing the top poker players all had in common was a complete lack of understanding of the value of money. The implication was that this was what was needed to become a top player, but I wonder if this attitude might be the inevitable result of playing for high stakes. I mean, is £30 a lot of money? I have no idea. What about £1,000? Well, it isn't life-changing, so I would say no, it isn't. But then I still baulk at paying a score for a cab and I certainly wouldn't pay a grand extra to travel club class. I suppose my point is that the sense of what money is worth is getting distorted, but isn't dead.
Cameron Angus was in Vegas for three months at the back-end of last year, playing up to 10 sit'n'goes a day for $200 a pop, and he said that his most irrational money act came about when his Internet connection went down in his flat. He promptly picked up his laptop, walked next door, booked into a hotel room for the night (cost, $80) just to check his e-mails.
The problem was, $80 was meaningless, in the context of the fact that he wanted to check his e-mails and he wanted to do it there and then. In a sense I am wandering that way. I still won't spend cash like it's water, but if I want something and I want it now, its actual cost doesn't seem relevant. So a small thing like not having to queue 20 minutes for a car (Alamo) but instead getting it straight away (Avis) is worth an extra £50 in car hire cost a week. A year or so ago that would not have been the case.
This is a slippery route to travel down and I am not sure that I want to take it. Higher level limit games (say, $15-$30 and above) require inidifference to four-figure swings if you know that they were the "rub of the green" (if you aren't indifferent, then you are liable to go on tilt at the bad luck). The danger is that that indifference carries over into real life. Or, maybe, that isn't a danger. Maybe that is an attitude to life and money devoutly to be wished. Darned if I know. Doubt that I'm thinking that straight at the moment anyway.
Some noice reposnses from old GH subscribers, but blogs are obviously too complex for them. Instead of posting a comment, they send me an e-mail! Old zine habits die hard, obviously.
It is amazing
Date: 2005-03-04 12:11 am (UTC)Glad to see that you're enjoying the poer - apart from our tiny game (bunch of gamers playing a game, the £100 on the table is pretty much an irrelevance), I haven't played in a few years. Miss your monthly game actually (and the food!).
There was an article in the Times recently about some research about whether getting more money made people happier. The conclusion was that those who spent their money on accumulating more material stuff (bigger car, more CDs...) were no happier at all, but those who spent it on 'quality of life' (e.g. moving to a more expensive house because it reduced the time spent commuting) were happier. What are you going to spend the £50 on if not taking 20 minutes of frustrating queueing out of your life? It's not about the value of money, its about the value and quality of time.
Youth is wasted on the young.
Iain.
Re: It is amazing
Date: 2005-03-04 06:10 am (UTC)Maybe I'll start a Sunday lunch club without the poker!