Date: 10/10/99
On to other things. As some of you know, my sabbatical is over - I have returned to Stanford's MSCS program. Some of you are, hopefully curious as to what I accomplished, why I have returned to school, and so forth.
Strangely enough, while I accomplished very few of the concrete goals I had for my sabbatical, I am very happy with its results. I spent a lot of time traveling, and a lot of time playing poker, and not enough time working on other projects. Lets talk about the poker. See, being a poker player is a worthless, unfulfilling, miserable existence, in and of itself. I mean, some of them are happy. Many are not. But the ones that are really happy are those that have a fulfilling life outside of poker. The ones that go home to a family, or have other jobs. Poker is amazingly unfulfilling, because all you are doing is taking money from suckers. Sure, I believe that suckers should lose their money. But you aren't producing anything, you aren't creating anything, you aren't making the world a better place.
Not that it ain't fun. Its lots of fun, and will be a hobby for the rest of my life, I'm sure. But its easy, for me at least, to find fun things to do. Finding satisfying things is much more difficult.
The big surprise, however, and part of the reason I am happy about how I spent my time, was that I feel that poker caused a huge amount of improvement in my self and my understanding of the world. Poker is a game of strategy, and a well-designed and interesting enough one that it captures many different aspects of strategy. Strategy is vital to our life, strategy is how we figure out how to accomplish our goals, where to use our energy, and when to conserve it. Being good at strategy and games is an important part of being good at life. Not all, but part. Poker is also a game of people, in a much more profound way than most games. It is the game of human nature, and human nature is another important part of life. Hell is other people, as is heaven. One of the few mitigations of the essential truths of our existence - that we are trapped on this little planet, that each individual is going to die eventually - is that there are other conscious, self-willed beings in the same predicament.
Having spent about 20 hours a week for 6 months concentrating on studying the game of poker, I feel that my understandings of strategy and human nature have both been profoundly increased. You just can't spend 20 hours a week watching 8 people intently, studying their every move and trying to divine their every thought, without learning a few things. I feel as though I understand better how the world works. To use geek terms, I feel like my wisdom has gone up at least a point, maybe a point and a half. And it doesn't always make things more complicated, sometimes it makes things simpler. I am more accepting of people and more understanding of human nature.
Since some people are into specifics, let me give you examples. Some of these things will be totally obvious to people with good intuitions of human nature. To people who are socially immature (this is merely a description, not an insult), these things may sound strange and baffling. Hopefully most people are in between, and will recognize some of what I say and agree with it, and perhaps learn as well. Feel free, of course, to email me with your own feelings, questions, or replies. I am always happy to help others reach towards enlightenment, and to be helped myself.
One of the first signs of my improved knowledge happened after only a few months of playing, and that was that I suddenly began to know what cars were going to do. I suppose I had just never thought about it that much, when driving. I mean sure, if a guys brake lights go on and he is ahead of you, you might wanna think about slowin' down. But this was another level. I would know when people were going to change lanes, when they were passing people because they wanted to get to an exit, and when they were just trying to move ahead. I found myself reacting to avoid potential situations that were a step farther removed than I had before.
Now, this isn't a truly profound ability, I admit. But cars are an excellent abstraction for people. You don't see facial expressions or tone of voice, the only information you have is the way this large object is moving. But its set of desires and goals is fairly restricted, and there aren't that many different types of drivers. Some people chafe at restrictions, passing at every opportunity. Others amble along, not particularly concerned with when they arrive. It is a microcosm for human existence, and I found it fascinating (and completely unexpected) that playing poker caused me to be able to "read" cars better.
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