Young men will compete for almost anything. Whether it’s a girl they know, a promotion at work, or physical competition — all it takes is a blow to your reputation or a risk of embarrassment for most men to compete, and for some men to go all out for a win.
This motivation to fight, the effort put into winning, and the emotional intensity based on the outcome are magnified 10x when money is on the line. Betting and the emotional decision making that comes with it just comes with the territory of putting 40 kids in a room with a scoreboard, spectators or a PnL sheet hanging over their heads.
Good question
In any regular Fraternity House, you will walk through the halls and see many games in the living room. Billiards, table tennis, darts, shuffleboard or poker to name a few. Don’t forget sports betting on football Sunday or just plain old fashioned drinking games.
The stakes are almost irrelevant. From a $1 gentlemen’s bet, to “loser does a shot” bets or maybe the pissing contest with real, hard-earned cash. Ridiculous bets on things that provide no real financial value are as real in the frat house as they are on the trading floor.
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The good news is that primitive gambling creates lessons for real-world application, both in trading the markets and in life. For some college kids, fraternity life is their first exposure to financially risky and competitive games. If you’re lucky, you learn to control your emotions and hopefully develop an intuitive sense for things like odds, when taking risks is smart, or learn how other people behave when they win or lose. You learn that there are serious losers, serious winners, and you can learn to be on the lookout for traps/scams/tricks and scammers.
Some of the best trading lessons you learn in a Brotherhood environment include:
No one likes to go first at 9pm in poker. One learns concepts like how to avoid the risk of disaster, knowing the actual odds of success versus the odds you receive of winning (do you have an edge?) and all the other ABCs of gambling
Sit down, we’ll teach you.
Sometimes they cheat you. Not always to a great extent, but you learn when someone is fooling you and you learn that there are definitely types of people who can be scammed out of their cash and there are scammers who will take advantage of it.
Past results are not indicative of future returns You learn that most people don’t really know when the hell they do. They’re just making up a narrative about why their football team is a lock on +360. You learn that some people believe that luck is skill and more excitingly, some people attribute skill or natural talent to luck.
Hot fallacy anyone?
Inspired or Stupid?
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Thoughts; Questions? comments;
I arrive! Maybe I’ll do a full post on the topic or as a Q&A
