vpFREE2 Forums

What would you do?

#1

This questions is targeted at full time professional gamblers.

The answers to this post might be used on my radio show if they are colorful enough. I'll provide my own answer in a few days.

Imagine you are shipwrecked on a desert isle at roughly the stone age technological level of Polynesian islands before the Spanish found them. The natives nurse you back to health and take excellent care of you. Even though they haven't asked you for anything in return, it is quite apparent that everyone in their community pitches in for the common good.

What do you do to contribute and repay them for saving your life and all their kindness?

You have only the knowledge in your head and your physical capabilities to draw from.

~FK

#2

Just blend in and hope they're not cannibals "fattening you up"...

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Frank" <frank@...> wrote:

This questions is targeted at full time professional gamblers.

The answers to this post might be used on my radio show if they are colorful enough. I'll provide my own answer in a few days.

Imagine you are shipwrecked on a desert isle at roughly the stone age technological level of Polynesian islands before the Spanish found them. The natives nurse you back to health and take excellent care of you. Even though they haven't asked you for anything in return, it is quite apparent that everyone in their community pitches in for the common good.

What do you do to contribute and repay them for saving your life and all their kindness?

You have only the knowledge in your head and your physical capabilities to draw from.

~FK

#3

I repay their kindness by giving the community many beautiful babies.

Cogno

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-----Original Message-----
From: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vpF…@…com] On Behalf Of
Frank
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 12:59 PM
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vpFREE] What would you do?

This questions is targeted at full time professional gamblers.

The answers to this post might be used on my radio show if they are colorful
enough. I'll provide my own answer in a few days.

Imagine you are shipwrecked on a desert isle at roughly the stone age
technological level of Polynesian islands before the Spanish found them. The
natives nurse you back to health and take excellent care of you. Even though
they haven't asked you for anything in return, it is quite apparent that
everyone in their community pitches in for the common good.

What do you do to contribute and repay them for saving your life and all
their kindness?

You have only the knowledge in your head and your physical capabilities to
draw from.

~FK

------------------------------------

vpFREE Links: http://members.cox.net/vpfree/Links.htm

Yahoo! Groups Links

#4

[...]

What do you do to contribute and repay them for saving your life and all
their kindness?

Whatever I'm good at?

You have only the knowledge in your head and your physical capabilities
to draw from.

I wonder if you are just trying to find a circumspect way to address the
question "What does a professional gambler contribute to society?"

If literally all someone is capable of doing is sitting in a chair and
pressing buttons, then such a person has little to offer your hypothetical
island community, yes.

However, depending on age, most would still probably be useful for basic
physical labor if nothing else, and also just because someone chooses to
be a professional gambler doesn't mean they can't have other skills they
could offer to a pre-industrial society.

Even if they didn't, in the abstract a professional gambler is probably
good at math, detail-oriented, can spot weaknesses/things that can be
exploited or need to be defended against, etc. which are traits that might
be useful to help a community improve/maintain its situation.

···

On Thu, 28 Apr 2011, Frank wrote:

#5

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Cogno Scienti <cognoscienti@...> wrote: I repay their kindness by giving the community many beautiful babies.

Depending on how useful you made yourself, I have no doubt there would be a couple of wives in it for you. The question is what would you do to become "good husband material". The natives have you outmatched in all the normal hunter/gatherer stuff.

I was hoping to illuminate the ways a person who has made their living gambling in our modern society would choose to be productive in a society that doesn't even have money.

A question like this is obviously a great opportunity for humor, but this was actually one of those rare times I was being serious.

I plan on using it on the show in a discussion of what VP professionals would be doing if they couldn't play VP.

~FK

#6

Scoring babes has nothing to do with being useful or productive.

Cogno

···

-----Original Message-----
From: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vpF…@…com] On Behalf Of
Frank
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 2:50 PM
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vpFREE] Re: What would you do?

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Cogno Scienti <cognoscienti@...> wrote: I
repay their kindness by giving the community many beautiful babies.

Depending on how useful you made yourself, I have no doubt there would be a
couple of wives in it for you. The question is what would you do to become
"good husband material". The natives have you outmatched in all the normal
hunter/gatherer stuff.

I was hoping to illuminate the ways a person who has made their living
gambling in our modern society would choose to be productive in a society
that doesn't even have money.

A question like this is obviously a great opportunity for humor, but this
was actually one of those rare times I was being serious.

I plan on using it on the show in a discussion of what VP professionals
would be doing if they couldn't play VP.

~FK

------------------------------------

vpFREE Links: http://members.cox.net/vpfree/Links.htm

Yahoo! Groups Links

#7

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Peter M." <midnight1626@...> wrote: I wonder if you are just trying to find a circumspect way to address the
question "What does a professional gambler contribute to society?"

No...No...Whoops...sorry...and other words as well.

It was not my intent to open up any such controversial discussion. Take the post at face value and read nothing "extra" into it.

I was curious as to what a pro would do, if they could not be a pro.

I was also curious as to what peripheral skills gambling teaches, that might be useful in other venues.

Oh and I wanted some material to talk about on-air.

That is all, Tropical Island--hypothetical situation--no realty required. Don't go all serious on me.

~FK

#8

There's always something to be hustled, even on a stone age desert island. You never heard of the "shell game"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustling

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Frank" <frank@...> wrote:

I was curious as to what a pro would do, if they could not be a pro.

#9

If you're a good gambler, you can get a good paying job (over 7 figures) at a hedge fund. Bill Gross started as a blackjack player, now he's head of PIMCO. Ed Thorp ran a very successful hedge fund for a while (he had a book called "Beat the Market"). A bunch of gamblers figured out that the Black-Scholes option pricing model was wrong for quite a while, thus providing a positive opportunity for them and a very negative opportunity for LTCM (casinos aren't the only ones who make "mistakes"). Claude Shannon (who figured out how to beat roulette, among other things) may have been the best stock picker of all time, his record beat Buffet. Buffet of course is a bridge player, as is Gates. Many Enron traders were poker players. Wall Street loves to hire winning professional poker tournament players:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/16/business/la-fi-poker-traders-20100516

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Frank" <frank@...> wrote:

I was also curious as to what peripheral skills gambling teaches, that might be useful in other venues.

#10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWGSEBdyhn4

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Frank" <frank@...> wrote:

The question is what would you do to become "good husband material". The natives have you outmatched in all the normal hunter/gatherer stuff.

#11

I am not a full time pro gambler, but I would help natives fill out the paperwork to get billions in aide from our government. That way their leader can steal the money and the rest can continue to live the life they were dealt.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Frank" <frank@...> wrote:

This questions is targeted at full time professional gamblers.

What do you do to contribute and repay them for saving your life and all their kindness?

~FK

#12

With luck, the natives would be able to teach me a useful and productive skill so that I could contribute to their community. We can all learn.

Chandler

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Frank" <frank@...> wrote:

This questions is targeted at full time professional gamblers.

The answers to this post might be used on my radio show if they are colorful enough. I'll provide my own answer in a few days.

Imagine you are shipwrecked on a desert isle at roughly the stone age technological level of Polynesian islands before the Spanish found them. The natives nurse you back to health and take excellent care of you. Even though they haven't asked you for anything in return, it is quite apparent that everyone in their community pitches in for the common good.

What do you do to contribute and repay them for saving your life and all their kindness?