DUCY? by David Sklansky and Alan N. Schoonmaker, Ph.D. has been released and is availble fot purchase from the TwoPlusTwoStore. It is a book of David’s ideas as applied to real life, and for an excerpt, here is a short chapter from the text.
When I was fourteen years old, my dad and I took a trip to Atlantic City. In those days there weren’t any casinos, but it did have the beach, Board Walk, Steel Pier, and many other attractions including a burlesque show. Since I was the usual bundle of adolescent hormones and curiosity, I begged, "Dad, please take me in. I really want to see that show."
He smiled indulgently and said, "Oh, come on, David, it’s just skin." I thought about it for a moment and realized, "He’s right." But I still wanted to see that show.
Despite being generally opposed to being irrational, I don’t alwaysfight my irrational desires, and neither should you. Just analyze situations well enough that you know what the more rational decision is. Then feel free to chose the more irrational alternative if the feelings you get from it are worth it.
Of course, you must understand and accept the consequences of doing so. I put quotation marks around "irrational" in the title because I meant irrational by most people’s standards, not necessarily by yours.
Recognizing your irrationality is the critically important first step. Most people don’t recognize how irrationally they are acting. They may deny it, deliberately or unconsciously. They lie to themselves or intentionally avoid or ignore information about the consequences. There is a perfect word for what they are doing, "rationalizing." If they recognized their irrationality, they would probably feel obliged to be more sensible.
Understanding and accepting the consequences of yielding to your feelings is equally important. Make sure that it isn’t costing you more than you can afford financially, socially, or psychologically.
If the costs and benefits are acceptable, do it without feeling guilty. Many people just can’t do it. Even if they understand and accept the consequences, they feel they are weak or immoral if they yield to an irrational desire. They may still eat that second desert, sleep late, or take a drink, but they can’t fully enjoy it.
Many years later I was thinking of taking up golf and thought it would be more fun if my wife joined me. When I raised the subject, she said, "Golf is a ridiculous game. Grown men just hit a ball, one time after another, trying to get it into a little hole. Then they keep on doing that same thing over and over." Again I realized she was right, but still wanted to do it. I also felt a little sorry for her and others who feel that way because they can’t enjoy golf and perhaps other pleasurable activities.
One thing I really enjoy is playing Frisbee. Of course, my enjoyment is a bit odd. The Frisbee just goes back and forth, back and forth, with only small variations. I will never make a penny from it. But so what? It’s fun, and it doesn’t cost me anything but my time. More importantly, I don’t let recognizing my irrationality keep me from enjoyable activities.
Although it’s okay to be irrational about some unimportant issues, it’s wrong for important ones. Let’s contrast recreational and professional poker.
If you enjoy playing poker and lose only money you can financially and psychologically afford, it’s just like spending money to see a show or take a vacation. It’s okay to play poker badly as long as your enjoyment is more important to you than the money you lose.
However, if you quit your job and try to become a poker pro without having the abilities and doing all the necessary work, you can waste your life. I’ve seen hundredsof failed wannabe pros. They struggle to make a marginal living when they could do much better in another occupation. They usually play reasonably well, but don’t have all the abilities or just won’t work hard enough.
The bottom line is that you’re not a machine. You have emotions and drives, including some foolish ones. If the costs are not too great, you should occasionally yield to them, even if it seems "irrational."
I described my own irrationality to help you become more accepting of your own. It’s not worthwhile to do consistency-inconsistency and cost-benefit analyses for every issue. But you should certainly do them for important decisions. My goal is to help you to understand and cope with your own irrationality and its consequences.
If you are completely rational, you may even get depressed. "Some studies have shown that depressed people appear to have a more realistic perception of their importance, reputation, locus of control, and abilities. People without depression are more likely to have inflated self-images and look at the world through ‘rose-colored glasses.’"1
However, under no circumstance should you refuse to search for the correct or logical answer. It’s okay to make irrational decisions only when you know what the rational decision is.
Furthermore, it’s never correct to be irrational about how you try to attain goals. It may be illogical to want to be a great Frisbee player, yet still be okay to seek that goal, but don’t be irrational in the way you try to attain that goal.
This idea that it’s okay to be irrational can also extend past trivial things like Frisbee and golf. For instance, the sub-prime mortgage crisis is partially solvable by forgiving some of the debt of irresponsible people. Such forgiveness will benefit many others because a healthier economy should result. In spite of this, many people are opposed to helping these irresponsible borrowers.
The bailouts of the banks and the Wall Street firms may be an even better example. Again, even though this bailout probably helps the man on the street, many of them are against it. They are willing to take a hit just so those $#%&* on Wall Street don’t get bailed out. From a purely economic standpoint this attitude is irrational, but if you feel better with a little less in your pocket so that those fat cats suffer, that’s your right. Again, all I ask is that you make this "irrational choice" with full knowledge of what it will cost you.
However, take this concept only so far. If you take it into areas of extreme importance, you are kidding yourself. I have heard many cigarette smokers say something like: "I know that cigarettes are bad for me, that they might give me lung cancer and other deadly diseases. But everybody has to die eventually, and I enjoy smoking."
It may seem that they are applying the principles of this chapter but it’s nonsense. I have never heard anyone who quit smoking for years say. "I’m sorry I quit. I feel healthier and will probably live longer, but it wasn’t worth it because I enjoyed smoking."
Al’s Comments
Many of my friends are poker professionals, and they usually play for substantial stakes. Because they know that they can’t make much money from each other, they deliberately look for games with weak players. In fact, as our friend and publisher Mason Malmuth put it, "Once you reach a certain level of competence at poker, your most important decision by far is game selection."2
But my friends and many other pros occasionally play in games they can’t beat just for the fun of it. Most of these games take place at homes or in social clubs. The stakes are usually trivial. If you saw the way they drink, play and giggle, you would never believe that poker is their profession.
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