GET MY EYE back on the ball... Look back on Thursday - I'll have some nice POKER stuff as well as some LIFE stuff..
Friday for sure!
lol
Hell - I just figured it out! TOMORROW (Thursday is my birthday!)
41 - Bring it on!!!
So - Friday for sure - My chest cold is not gone - but MIGHT be on the outs.. (fingers crossed) MUCH to tell - and talking about in POKER!
Hey - if you did not do so yet - Please sign my Guest book - Consider it a birthday gift to me!
Hope everyone is winning huge pots!!!
Used to be a blog that questioned everything about live poker,online poker,live gaming and well. Life. Now it deals out ANYTHING I want write about. Like my quest for #1win w/major poker tourney,or how Political correctness got nuts! Why I think Washington D.C. Sold us out! God Bless our Troops/GOD Bless the USA! Time to round up those accountable for the mess and get them before the JUDGE, People got too GREEDY,Big Bizz,Politics,Media and Insurance. The days of ME,ME,ME must STOP,STOP,STOP!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
The TRASH TALK post!
I'm sorry all - I can't shake this chest infection! I'm sick - sick - sick!
So - rather than give you a washed out version of my take on the SUBJECT that I love most in poker - (ALLOWING players to use ALL styles of play - including SMACK/TRASH talk) I'm going to "table" the post! Just until I'm feeling better...
However - because I want you to get SUPER value when you come here - check out this SITE and see some of the videos and posts! It's a well thought out site.
HERE is just a small taste - ALL SOLID GOOD ADVICE!
This site I'm shipping you OFF TO.. you will find a POST called "QUOTES"
Again, READ THIS.. soak it in and read it again - It's GOLD! If you are trying to LEARN to play quality poker! You must learn how to NOT BEAT YOURSELF as much as learning the top SKILLS of the game, position, odds, reading people, etc.. YOU MUST VIEW YOURSELF!!!! (Take a hard look in the POKER mirror)
Here is the the MUCH hyped QUOTE!
"Whether he likes it or not, a man’s character is stripped at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life. ~Anthony Holden"
Find this and MORE like it at... this site. Enjoy!
http://www.moderngrinder.com/index.html
Bonito Dia! "Pretty day!"
Here is a pic of the two cleaning ladies at work - Edith and Judy!
Hi girls!
These two ladies take time teaching me SPANISH everyday while I'm at work, In turn... I teach them some of the tougher ENGLISH words - They speak English pretty well! They are way better at it than I am with Spanish...
Yes sir...I'm slow with Spanish - but I'm getting there!
My 7th grade Spanish teacher is rolling over in her grave - as I told her I'd never need to learn Spanish!!! Boy! Did I ever eat my words on that statement...
Just goes to show you - "YOU NEVER KNOW YOU KNOW....."
I also have a bunch of cool pictures I snapped at work to show all of you...
BE SURE to slow down and SOAK them in!!! The SMALL DETAILS IN "LIFE" and "POKER" will make us RICHER..
The pictures are not as pretty as the ladies pic above - but they are still nice to look at.. I LOVE looking for the FINE details in my poker game AND in the wild (life)
Come back later too! I'm still working on that "special" trash talking post..
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tonight I'm DEEP in THOUGHT - ACTING like a WRITER
I'm working on a piece for a forum I check into from time to time.. PSO (PokerSchoolOnline) - Come on back and check it out! It will cover the topic of TRASH TALKING at the poker table...
RIGHT THIS MINUTE I'm doing a review of a NEW site called SPADE CLUB... Because one of my readers asked me to do so.. Her name is JEWITO and she is a HOTTIE from OKLAHOMA!
We will see how all this DEEP thought writing goes!!! God - I need my BLOGCAST! I'm made for talking NOT writing/typing..
If you are new to STANDBACKWORLD - There is plenty to read, pull up a chair, make urself at home... - Make a comment - Ask A poker question OR Oh! I know - Sign my guest book! (add a picture too! Don't be lame like that guy J Todd from APCW)
Until tomorrow - Good luck to you at the tables...
RIGHT THIS MINUTE I'm doing a review of a NEW site called SPADE CLUB... Because one of my readers asked me to do so.. Her name is JEWITO and she is a HOTTIE from OKLAHOMA!
We will see how all this DEEP thought writing goes!!! God - I need my BLOGCAST! I'm made for talking NOT writing/typing..
If you are new to STANDBACKWORLD - There is plenty to read, pull up a chair, make urself at home... - Make a comment - Ask A poker question OR Oh! I know - Sign my guest book! (add a picture too! Don't be lame like that guy J Todd from APCW)
Until tomorrow - Good luck to you at the tables...
My first $50 game on tilt this month - FINISH 71
I could not get it to the final table on FULLTILTPOKER
- I managed to GRIND it up to a 71st place finish out of 984 players and a $105.00 pay - I made one mistake that hurt me bad late in the game - calling a re-raise with my AQ - I was in SB - BB raised all in for 2/3rds my stack...(In last min I went against my gut of course) THIS HAND that caused me PAIN was the last hand of a 5 hand RUSH - and I should have known better - FULL TILT seems to set us up at times - (or so it seems anyways) POINT is - FOLLOW UR GUT!
I'm "BigTIME LOSER" on FULLTILTPOKER
Oh well - I have a fever of 102 - so I should have never even signed up
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
On Bullshit
On Bullshit
Harry Frankfurt
Princeton University
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, we have no theory. I propose to begin the development of a theoretical understanding of bullshit, mainly by providing some tentative and exploratory philosophical analysis. I shall not consider the rhetorical uses and misuses of bullshit. My aim is simply to give a rough account of what bullshit is and how it differs from what it is not, or (putting it somewhat differently) to articulate, more or less sketchily, the structure of its concept. Any suggestion about what conditions are logically both necessary and sufficient for the constitution of bullshit is bound to be somewhat arbitrary. For one thing, the expression bullshit is often employed quite loosely — simply as a generic term of abuse, with no very specific literal meaning. For another, the phenomenon itself is so vast and amorphous that no crisp and perspicuous analysis of its concept can avoid being procrustean. Nonetheless it should be possible to say something helpful, even though it is not likely to be decisive. Even the most basic and preliminary questions about bullshit remain, after all, not only unanswered but unasked. So far as I am aware, very little work has been done on this subject. I have not undertaken a survey of the literature, partly because I do not know how to go about it. To be sure, there is one quite obvious place to look — the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED has an entry for bullshit in the supplementary volumes, and it also has entries for various pertinent uses of the word bull and for some related terms. I shall consider some of these entries in due course. I have not consulted dictionaries in languages other than English, because I do not know the words for bullshit or bull in any other language.
Another worthwhile source is the title essay in The Prevalence of Humbug by Max Black. I am uncertain just how close in meaning the word humbug is to the word bullshit. Of course, the words are not freely and fully interchangeable; it is clear that they are used differently. But the difference appears on the whole to have more to do with considerations of gentility, and certain other rhetorical parameters, than with the strictly literal modes of significance that concern me most. It is more polite, as well as less intense, to say “Humbug!” than to say “Bullshit!” For the sake of this discussion, I shall assume that there is no other important difference between the two, Black suggests a number of synonyms for humbug, including the following: “balderdash”, “claptrap”, “hokum”, “drivel”, “buncombe”, “imposture”, and “quackery”. This list of quaint equivalents is not very helpful. But Black also confronts the problem of establishing the nature of humbug more directly, and he offers the following formal definition:
Humbug: deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes.
A very similar formulation might plausibly be offered as enunciating the essential characteristics of bullshit. As a preliminary to developing an independent account of those characteristics, I will comment on the various elements of Black’s definition.
Deceptive misrepresentation: This may sound pleonastic. No doubt what Black has in mind is that humbug is necessarily designed or intended to deceive, that its misrepresentation is not merely inadvertent. In other words, it is deliberate misrepresentation. Now if, as a matter of conceptual necessity, an intention to deceive is an invariable feature of humbug, then the property of being humbug depends at least in part upon the perpetrator’s state of mind. It cannot be identical, accordingly, with any properties — either inherent or relational — belonging just to the utterance by which the humbug is perpetrated. In this respect, the property of being humbug is similar to that of being a lie, which is identical neither with the falsity nor with any of the other properties of the statement the liar makes, but which requires that the liar makes his statement in a certain state of mind — namely, with an intention to deceive. It is a further question whether there are any features essential to humbug or to lying that are not dependent upon the intentions and beliefs of the person responsible for the humbug or the lie, or whether it is, on the contrary, possible for any utterance whatsoever to be — given that the speaker is in a certain state of mind — a vehicle of humbug or of a lie. In some accounts of lying there is no lie unless a false statement is made; in others a person may be lying even if the statement he makes is true, as long as he himself believes that the statement is false and intends by making it to deceive. What about humbug and bullshit? May any utterance at all qualify as humbug or bullshit, given that (so to speak) the utterer’s heart is in the right place, or must the utterance have certain characteristics of its own as well?
Short of lying: It must be part of the point of saying that humbug is “short of lying,” that while it has some of the distinguishing characteristics of lies, there are others that it lacks. But this cannot be the whole point. After all, every use of language without exception has some, but not all, of the characteristic features of lies — if no other, then at least the feature simply of being a use of language. Yet it would surely be incorrect to describe every use of language as short of lying. Black’s phrase evokes the notion of some sort of continuum, on which lying occupies a certain segment while humbug is located exclusively at earlier points. What continuum could this be, along which one encounters humbug only before one encounters lying? Both lying and humbug are modes of misrepresentation. It is not at first glance apparent, however, just how the difference between these varieties of misrepresentation might be construed as a difference in degree.
Especially by pretentious word or deed: There are two points to notice here. First, Black identifies humbug not only as a category of speech but as a category of action as well; it may be accomplished either by words or by deeds. Second, his use of the qualifier “especially” indicates that Black does not regard pretentiousness as an essential or wholly indispensable characteristic of humbug. Undoubtedly, much humbug is pretentious. So far as concerns bullshit, moreover, “pretentious bullshit” is close to being a stock phrase. But I am inclined to think that when bullshit is pretentious, this happens because pretentiousness is its motive rather than a constitutive element of its essence. The fact that a person is behaving pretentiously is not, it seems to me, part of what is required to make his utterance an instance of bullshit. It is often, to be sure, what accounts for his making that utterance. However, it must not be assumed that bullshit always and necessarily has pretentiousness as its motive.
Misrepresentation … of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes: This provision that the perpetrator of humbug is essentially misrepresenting himself raises some very central issues. To begin with, whenever a person deliberately misrepresents anything, he must inevitably misrepresenting his own state of mind. It is possible, of course, for a person to misrepresent that alone — for instance, by pretending to have a desire or a feeling which he does not actually have. But suppose that a person, whether by telling a lie or in another way, misrepresents something else. Then he necessarily misrepresents at least two things. He misrepresents whatever he is talking about — i.e., the state of affairs that is the topic or referent of his discourse — and in doing this he cannot avoid misrepresenting his own mind as well. Thus, someone who lies about how much money he has in his pocket both gives an account of the amount of money in his pocket and conveys that he believes this account. If the lie works, then its victim is twice deceived, having one false belief about what is in the liar’s pocket and another false belief about what is in the liar’s mind.
Now it is unlikely that Black wishes that the referent of humbug is in every instance the state of the speaker’s mind. There is no particular reason, after all, why humbug may not be about other things. Black probably means that humbug is not designed primarily to give its audience a false belief about whatever state of affairs may be the topic, but that its primary intention is rather to give its audience a false impression concerning what is going on in the mind of the speaker. Insofar as it is humbug, the creation of this impression is its main purpose and its point. Understanding Black along these lines suggests a hypothesis to account for his characterization of humbug as “short of lying.” If I lie to you about how much money I have, then I do not thereby make an explicit assertion concerning my beliefs. Therefore, one might with some plausibility maintain that although in telling the lie I certainly misrepresent what is in my mind, this misrepresentation — as distinct from my misrepresentation of what is in my pocket — is not strictly speaking a lie at all. For I do not come right out with any statement whatever about what is in my mind. Nor does the statement I do affirm — e.g., “I have twenty dollars in my pocket” — imply any statement that attributes a belief to me. On the other hand, it is unquestionable that in so affirming, I provide you with a reasonable basis for making certain judgments about what I believe. In particular, I provide you with a reasonable basis for supposing that I believe there is twenty dollars in my pocket. Since this supposition is by hypothesis false, I do in telling the lie tend to deceive you concerning what is in my mind even though I do not actually tell a lie about that. In this light, it does not seem unnatural or inappropriate to regard me as misrepresenting my own beliefs in a way that is “short of lying.” It is easy to think of familiar situations by which Black’s account of humbug appears to be unproblematically confirmed. Consider a Fourth of July orator, who goes on bombastically about “our great and blessed country, whose Founding-Fathers under divine guidance created a new beginning for mankind.” This is surely humbug. As Black’s account suggests, the orator is not lying. He would be lying only if it were his intention to bring about in his audience beliefs which he himself regards as false, concerning such matters as whether our country is great, whether it is blessed, whether the Founders had divine guidance, and whether what they did was in fact to create a new beginning for mankind. But the orator does not really care what his audience thinks about the Founding Fathers, or about the role of the deity in our country’s history, or the like. At least, it is not an interest in what anyone thinks about these matters that motivates his speech. It is clear that what makes Fourth of July oration humbug is not fundamentally that the speaker regards his statements as false. Rather, just as Black’s account suggests, the orator intends these statements to convey a certain impression of himself. He is not trying to deceive anyone concerning American history. What he cares about is what people think of him. He wants them to think of him as a patriot, as someone who has deep thoughts and feelings about the origins and the mission of our country, who appreciates the importance of religion, who is sensitive to the greatness of our history, whose pride in that history is combined with humility before God, and so on. Black’s account of humbug appears, then, to fit certain paradigms quite snugly. Nonetheless, I do not believe that it adequately or accurately grasps the essential character of bullshit. It is correct to say of bullshit, as he says of humbug, both that it is short of lying and that chose who perpetrate it misrepresent themselves in a certain way. But Black’s account of these two features is significantly off the mark. I shall next attempt to develop, by considering some biographical material pertaining to Ludwig Wittgenstein, a preliminary but more accurately focused appreciation of just what the central characteristics of bullshit are. Wittgenstein once said that the following bit of verse by Longfellow could serve him as a motto:
In the elder days of art
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part,
For the Gods are everywhere.
The point of these lines is clear. In the old days, craftsmen did not cut corners. They worked carefully, and they took care with every aspect of their work. Every part of the product was considered, and each was designed and made to be exactly as it should be. These craftsmen did not relax their thoughtful self-discipline even with respect to features of their work which would ordinarily not be visible. Although no one would notice if those features were not quite right, the craftsmen would be bothered by their consciences. So nothing was swept under the rug. Or, one might perhaps also say, there was no bullshit.
It does seem fitting to construe carelessly made, shoddy goods as in some way analogues of bullshit. But in what way? Is the resemblance that bullshit itself is invariably produced in a careless or self-indulgent manner, that it is never finely crafted, that in the making of it there is never the meticulously attentive concern with detail to which Longfellow alludes? Is the bullshitter by his very nature a mindless slob? Is his product necessarily messy or unrefined? The word shit does, to be sure, suggest this. Excrement is not designed or crafted at all; it is merely emitted, or dumped. It may have a more or less coherent shape, or it may not, but it is in any case certainly not wrought.
The notion of carefully wrought bullshit involves, then, a certain inner strain. Thoughtful attention to detail requires discipline and objectivity. It entails accepting standards and limitations that forbid the indulgence of impulse or whim. It is this selflessness that, in connection with bullshit, strikes us as inapposite. But in fact it is not out of the question at all. The realms of advertising and of public relations, and the nowadays closely related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept. And in these realms there are exquisitely sophisticated craftsmen who — with the help of advanced and demanding techniques of market research, of public opinion polling, of psychological testing, and so forth — dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they produce exactly right.
Yet there is something more to be said about this. However studiously and conscientiously the bullshitter proceeds, it remains true that he is also trying to get away with something. There is surely in his work, as in the work of the slovenly craftsman, some kind of laxity which resists or eludes the demands of a disinterested and austere discipline. The pertinent mode of laxity cannot be equated, evidently, with simple carelessness or inattention to detail. I shall attempt in due course to locate it more correctly.
Wittgenstein devoted his philosophical energies largely to identifying and combating what he regarded as insidiously disruptive forms of “non-sense.” He was apparently like that in his personal life as well. This comes out in an anecdote related by Fania Pascal, who knew him in Cambridge in the 1930s:
I had my tonsils out and was in the Evelyn Nursing Home feeling sorry for myself. Wittgenstein called. I croaked: “I feel just like a dog that has been run over.” He was disgusted: “You don’t know what a dog that has been run over feels like.”
Now who knows what really happened? It seems extraordinary, almost unbelievable, that anyone could object seriously to what Pascal reports herself as having said. That characterization of her feelings — so innocently close to the utterly commonplace “sick as a dog” — is simply not provocative enough to arouse any response as lively or intense as disgust. If Pascal’s simile is offensive, then what figurative or allusive uses of language would not be? So perhaps it did not really happen quite as Pascal says. Perhaps Wittgenstein was trying to make a small joke, and it misfired. He was only pretending to bawl Pascal out, just for the fun of a little hyperbole; and she got the tone and the intention wrong. She thought he was disgusted by her remark, when in fact he was only trying to cheer her up with some playfully exaggerated mock criticism or joshing. In that case the incident is not incredible or bizarre after all.
But if Pascal failed to recognize that Wittgenstein was only teasing, then perhaps the possibility that he was serious was at least not so far out of the question. She knew him, and she knew what to expect from him; she knew how he made her feel. Her way of understanding or of misunderstanding his remark was very likely not altogether discordant, then, with her sense of what he was like. We may fairly suppose that even if her account of the incident is not strictly true to the facts of Wittgenstein’s intention, it is sufficiently true to her idea of Wittgenstein to have made sense to her. For the purposes of this discussion, I shall accept Pascal’s report at face value, supposing that when it came to the use of allusive or figurative language, Wittgenstein was indeed as preposterous as she makes him out to be.
Then just what is it that the Wittgenstein in her report considers to be objectionable? Let us assume that he is correct about the facts: that is, Pascal really does not know how run-over dogs feel. Even so, when she says what she does, she is plainly not lying. She would have been lying if, when she made her statement, she was aware that she actually felt quite good. For however little she knows about the lives of dogs, it must certainly be clear to Pascal that when dogs are run over they do not feel good. So if she herself had in fact been feeling good, it would have been a lie to assert that she felt like a run-over dog.
Pascal’s Wittgenstein does not intend to accuse her of lying, but of misrepresentation of another sort. She characterizes her feeling as “the feeling of a run-over dog.” She is not really acquainted, however, with the feeling to which this phrase refers. Of course, the phrase is far from being complete nonsense to her; she is hardly speaking gibberish. What she says has an intelligible connotation, which she certainly understands. Moreover, she does know something about the quality of the feeling to which the phrase refers: she knows at least that it is an undesirable and unenjoyable feeling, a bad feeling. The trouble with her statement is that it purports to convey something more than simply that she feels bad. Her characterization of her feeling is too specific; it is excessively particular. Hers is not just any bad feeling but, according to her account, the distinctive kind of bad feeling that a dog has when it is run over. To the Wittgenstein in Pascal’s story, judging from his response, this is just bullshit.
Now assuming that Wittgenstein does indeed regard Pascal’s characterization of how she feels as an instance of bullshit, why does it strike him that way? It does so, I believe, because he perceives what Pascal says as being — roughly speaking, for now — unconnected to a concern with the truth. Her statement is not germane to the enterprise of describing reality. She does not even think she knows, except in the vaguest way, how a run-over dog feels. Her description of her own feeling is, accordingly, something that she is merely making up. She concocts it out of whole cloth; or, if she got it from someone else, she is repeating it quite mindlessly and without any regard for how things really are.
It is for this mindlessness that Pascal’s Wittgenstein chides her. What disgusts him is that Pascal is not even concerned whether her statement is correct. There is every likelihood, of course, that she says what she does only in a somewhat clumsy effort to speak colorfully, or to appear vivacious or good-humored; and no doubt Wittgenstein’s reaction — as she construes it — is absurdly intolerant. Be this as it may, it seems clear what that reaction is. He reacts as though he perceives her to be speaking about her feeling thoughtlessly, without conscientious attention to the relevant facts. Her statement is not “wrought with greatest care.” She makes it without bothering to take into account at all the question of its accuracy.
The point that troubles Wittgenstein is manifestly not that Pascal has made a mistake in her description of how she feels. Nor is it even that she has made a careless mistake. Her laxity, or her lack of care, is not a matter of having permitted an error to slip into her speech on account of some inadvertent or momentarily negligent lapse in the attention she was devoting to getting things right. The point is rather that, so far as Wittgenstein can see, Pascal offers a description of a certain state of affairs without genuinely submitting to the constraints which the endeavor to provide an accurate representation of reality imposes. Her fault is not that she fails to get things right, but that she is not even trying.
This is important to Wittgenstein because, whether justifiably or not, he takes what she says seriously, as a statement purporting to give an informative description of the way she feels. He construes her as engaged in an activity to which the distinction between what is true and what is false is crucial, and yet as taking no interest in whether what she says is true or false. It is in this sense that Pascal’s statement is unconnected to a concern with truth: she is not concerned with the truth-value of what she says. That is why she cannot be regarded as lying; for she does not presume that she knows the truth, and therefore she cannot be deliberately promulgating a proposition that she presumes to be false: Her statement is grounded neither in a belief that it is true nor, as a lie must be, in a belief that it is not true. It is just this lack of connection to a concern with truth — this indifference to how things really are — that I regard as of the essence of bullshit.
Now I shall consider (quite selectively) certain items in the Oxford English Dictionary that are pertinent to clarifying the nature of bullshit. The OED defines a bull session as “an informal conversation or discussion, esp. of a group of males.” Now as a definition, this seems wrong. For one thing, the dictionary evidently supposes that the use of the term bull in bull session serves primarily just to indicate gender. But even if it were true that the participants in bull sessions are generally or typically males, the assertion that a bull session is essentially nothing more particular than an informal discussion among males would be as far off the mark as the parallel assertion that a hen session is simply an informal conversation among females. It is probably true that the participants in hen sessions must be females. Nonetheless the term hen session conveys something more specific than this concerning the particular kind of informal conversation among females to which hen sessions are characteristically devoted. What is distinctive about the sort of informal discussion among males that constitutes a bull session is, it seems to me, something like this: while the discussion may be intense and significant, it is in a certain respect not “for real.”
The characteristic topics of a bull session have to do with very personal and emotion-laden aspects of life — for instance, religion, politics, or sex. People are generally reluctant to speak altogether openly about these topics if they expect that they might be taken too seriously. What tends to go on in a bull session is that the participants try out various thoughts and attitudes in order to see how it feels to hear themselves saying such things and in order to discover how others respond, without it being assumed that they are committed to what they say: It is understood by everyone in a bull session that the statements people make do not necessarily reveal what they really believe or how they really feel. The main point is to make possible a high level of candor and an experimental or adventuresome approach to the subjects under discussion. Therefore provision is made for enjoying a certain irresponsibility, so that people will be encouraged to convey what is on their minds without too much anxiety that they will be held to it.
Each of the contributors to a bull session relies, in other words, upon a general recognition that what he expresses or says is not to be understood as being what he means wholeheartedly or believes unequivocally to be true. The purpose of the conversation is not to communicate beliefs. Accordingly, the usual assumptions about the connection between what people say and what they believe are suspended. The statements made in a bull session differ from bullshit in that there is no pretense that this connection is being sustained. They are like bullshit by virtue of the fact that they are in some degree unconstrained by a concern with truth. This resemblance between bull sessions and bullshit is suggested also by the term shooting the bull, which refers to the sort of conversation that characterizes bull sessions and in which the term shooting is very likely a cleaned-up rendition of shitting. The very term bull session is, indeed, quite probably a sanitized version of bullshit session. A similar theme is discernible in a British usage of bull in which, according to the OED, the term refers to “unnecessary routine tasks or ceremonial; excessive discipline or ‘spit-and-polish’; = red-tape.” The dictionary provides the following examples of this usage:
“The Squadron … felt very bolshie about all that bull that was flying around the station” (I. Gleed, Arise to Conquer vi. 51, I942); “Them turning out the guard for us, us marching past eyes right, all that sort of bull” (A. Baron, Human Kind xxiv. 178, 1953); the drudgery and ‘bull’ in an MP’s life.” (Economist 8 Feb. 470/471, 1958)
Here the term bull evidently pertains to tasks that are pointless in that they have nothing much to do with the primary intent or justifying purpose of the enterprise which requires them. Spit-and-polish and red tape do not genuinely contribute, it is presumed, to the “real” purposes of military personnel or government officials, even though they are imposed by agencies or agents that purport to be conscientiously devoted to the pursuit of those purposes. Thus the “unnecessary routine tasks or ceremonial” that constitute bull are disconnected from the legitimating motives of the activity upon which they intrude, just as the things people say in bull sessions are disconnected from their settled beliefs, and as bullshit is disconnected from a concern with the truth.
The term bull is also employed, in a rather more widespread and familiar usage, as a somewhat less coarse equivalent of bullshit. In an entry for bull as so used, the OED suggests the following as definitive: “trivial, insincere, or untruthful talk or writing; nonsense.” Now it does not seem distinctive of bull either that it must be deficient in meaning or that it is necessarily unimportant; so “nonsense” and “trivial,” even apart from their vagueness, seem to be on the wrong track. The focus of “insincere, or untruthful” is better, but it needs to be sharpened. The entry at hand also provides the following two definitions:
1914 Dialect Notes IV. 162 Bull, talk which is not to the purpose; “hot air.”
I 932 Times Lit. Supp. 8 Dec. 933/3 “Bull” is the slang term for a combination of bluff, bravado, “hot air” and what we used to call in the Army “Kidding the troops”
“Not to the purpose” is appropriate, but it is both too broad in scope and too vague. It covers digressions and innocent irrelevancies, which are not invariably instances of bull; furthermore, saying that bull is not to the purpose leaves it uncertain what purpose is meant. The reference in both definitions to “hot air” is more helpful. When we characterize talk as hot air, we mean that what comes out of the speaker’s mouth is only that. It is mere vapor. His speech is empty, without substance or content. His use of language, accordingly, does not contribute to the purpose it purports to serve. No more information is communicated than if the speaker had merely exhaled. There are similarities between hot air and excrement, incidentally, which make hot air seem an especially suitable equivalent for bullshit. Just as hot air is speech that has been emptied of all informative content, so excrement is matter from which everything nutritive has been removed. Excrement may be regarded as the corpse of nourishment, what remains when the vital elements in food have been exhausted. In this respect, excrement is a representation of death which we ourselves produce and which, indeed, we cannot help producing in the very process of maintaining our lives. Perhaps it is for making death so intimate that we find excrement so repulsive. In any event, it cannot serve the purposes of sustenance, any more than hot air can serve those of cummunication.
Now consider these lines from Pound’s Canto LXXIV, which the OED cites in its entry on bullshit as a verb:
Hey Snag wots in the bibl’?
Wot are the books ov the bible?
Name ’em, don’t bullshit ME.
This is a call for the facts. The person addressed is evidently regarded as having in some way claimed to know the Bible, or as having claimed to care about it. The speaker suspects that this is just empty talk, and demands that the claim be supported with facts. He will not accept a mere report; he insists upon seeing the thing itself. In other words, he is calling the bluff. The connection between bullshit and bluff is affirmed explicitly in the definition with which the lines by Pound are associated:
As v. truns. and intr., to talk nonsense (to); … also, to bluff one’s way through (something) by talking nonsense.
It does seem that bullshitting involves a kind of bluff. It is closer to bluffing, surely than to telling a lie. But what is implied concerning its nature by the fact that it is more like the former than it is like the latter? Just what is the relevant difference here between a bluff and a lie? Lying and bluffing are both modes of misrepresentation or deception. Now the concept most central to the distinctive nature of a lie is that of falsity: the liar is essentially someone who deliberately promulgates a falsehood. Bluffing too is typically devoted to conveying something false. Unlike plain lying, however, it is more especially a matter not of falsity but of fakery. This is what accounts for its nearness to bullshit. For the essence of bullshit is not that it is false but that it isphony. In order to appreciate this distinction, one must recognize that a fake or a phony need not be in any respect (apart from authenticity itself) inferior to the real thing. What is not genuine need not also be defective in some other way. It may be, after all, an exact copy. What is wrong with a counterfeit is not what it is like, but how it was made. This points to a similar and fundamental aspect of the essential nature of bullshit: although it is produced without concern with the truth, it need not be false. The bullshitter is faking things. But this does not mean that he necessarily gets them wrong.
In Eric Ambler’s novel Dirty Story, a character named Arthur Abdel Simpson recalls advice that he received as a child from his father:
Although I was only seven when my father was killed, I still remember him very well and some of the things he used to say. … One of the first things he taught me was, “Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through.”
This presumes not only that there is an important difference between lying and bullshitting, but that the latter is preferable to the former. Now the elder Simpson surely did not consider bullshitting morally superior to lying. Nor is it likely that he regarded lies as invariably less effective than bullshit in accomplishing the purposes for which either of them might be employed. After all, an intelligently crafted lie may do its work with unqualified success. It may be that Simpson thought it easier to get away with bullshitting than with lying. Or perhaps he meant that, although the risk of being caught is about the same in each case, the consequences of being caught are generally less severe for the bullshitter than for the liar. In fact, people do tend to be more tolerant of bullshit than of lies, perhaps because we are less inclined to take the former as a personal affront. We may seek to distance ourselves from bullshit, but we are more likely to turn away from it with an impatient or irritated shrug than with the sense of violation or outrage that lies often inspire. The problem of understanding why our attitude toward bullshit is generally more benign than our attitude toward lying is an important one, which I shall leave as an exercise for the reader. The pertinent comparison is not, however, between telling a lie and producing some particular instance of bullshit. The elder Simpson identifies the alternative to telling a lie as “bullshitting one’s way through.” This involves not merely producing one instance of bullshit; it involves a program of producing bullshit to whatever extent the circumstances require. This is a key, perhaps, to his preference. Telling a lie is an act with a sharp focus. It is designed to insert a particular falsehood at a specific point in a set or system of beliefs, in order to avoid the consequences of having that point occupied by the truth. This requires a degree of craftsmanship, in which the teller of the lie submits to objective constraints imposed by what he takes to be the truth. The liar is inescapably concerned with truth-values. In order to invent a lie at all, he must think he knows what is true. And in order to invent an effective lie, he must design his falsehood under the guidance of that truth. On the other hand, a person who undertakes to bullshit his way through has much more freedom. His focus is panoramic rather than particular. He does not limit himself to inserting a certain falsehood at a specific point, and thus he is not constrained by the truths surrounding that point or intersecting it. He is prepared to fake the context as well, so far as need requires. This freedom from the constraints to which the liar must submit does not necessarily mean, of course, that his task is easier than the task of the liar. But the mode of creativity upon which it relies is less analytical and less deliberative than that which is mobilized in lying. It is more expansive and independent, with mare spacious opportunities for improvisation, color, and imaginative play. This is less a matter of craft than of art. Hence the familiar notion of the “bullshit artist.” My guess is that the recommendation offered by Arthur Simpson’s father reflects the fact that he was more strongly drawn to this mode of creativity, regardless of its relative merit or effectiveness, than he was to the more austere and rigorous demands of lying.
What bullshit essentially misrepresents is neither the state of affairs to which it refers nor the beliefs of the speaker concerning that state of affairs. Those are what lies misrepresent, by virtue of being false. Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its misrepresentational intent. The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to.
This is the crux of the distinction between him and the liar. Both he and the liar represent themselves falsely as endeavoring to communicate the truth. The success of each depends upon deceiving us about that. But the fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor co conceal it. This does not mean that his speech is anarchically impulsive, but that the motive guiding and controlling it is unconcerned with how the things about which he speaks truly are.
It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.
In his essay, “Lying,” St. Augustine distinguishes lies of eight types, which he classifies according to the characteristic intent or justification with which a lie is told. Lies of seven of these types are told only because they are supposed to be indispensable means to some end that is distinct from the sheer creation of false beliefs. It is not their falsity as such, in other words, that attracts the teller to them. Since they are told only on account of their supposed indispensability to a goal other than deception itself, St. Augustine regards them as being told unwillingly: what the person really wants is not to tell the lie but to attain the goal. They are therefore not real lies, in his view, and those who tell them are not in the strictest sense liars. It is only the remaining category that contains what he identifies as “the lie which is told solely for the pleasure of lying and deceiving, that is, the real lie.” Lies in this category are not told as means to any end distinct form the propagation of falsehood. They are told simply for their own sakes — i.e., purely out of a love of deception:
There is a distinction between a person who tells a lie and a liar. The former is one who tells a lie unwillingly, while the liar loves to lie and passes his time in the joy of lying. … The latter takes delight in lying, rejoicing in the falsehood itself.
What Augustine calls “liars” and “real lies” are both rare and extraordinary. Everyone lies from time to time, but there are very few people to whom it would often (or even ever) occur to lie exclusively from a love of falsity or of deception. For most people, the fact that a statement is false constitutes in itself a reason, however weak and easily overridden, not to make the statement.
For St. Augustine’s pure liar it is, on the contrary, a reason in favor of making it. For the bullshitter it is in itself neither a reason in favor nor a reason against. Both in lying and in telling the truth people are guided by their beliefs concerning the way things are. These guide them as they endeavor either to describe the world correctly or to describe it deceitfully. For this reason, telling lies does not tend to unfit a person for telling the truth in the same way that bullshitting tends to. Through excessive indulgence in the latter activity, which involves making assertions without paying attention to anything except what it suits one to say, a person’s normal habit of attending to the ways things are may become attenuated or lost. Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.
One who is concerned to report or to conceal the facts assumes that there are indeed facts that are in some way both determinate and knowable. His interest in telling the truth or in lying presupposes that there is a difference between getting things wrong and getting them right, and that it is at least occasionally possible to tell the difference. Someone who ceases to believe in the possibility of identifying certain statements as true and others as false can have only two alternatives. The first is to desist both from efforts to tell the truth and from efforts to deceive. This would mean refraining from making any assertion whatever about the facts. The second alternative is to continue making assertions that purport to describe the way things are but that cannot be anything except bullshit.
Why is there so much bullshit? Of course it is impossible to be sure that there is relatively more of it nowadays than at other times. There is more communication of all kinds in our time than ever before, but the proportion that is bullshit may not have increased. Without assuming that the incidence of bullshit is actually greater now, I will mention a few considerations that help to account for the fact that it is currently so great.
Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic are more excessive than his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic. This discrepancy is common in public life, where people are frequently impelled — whether by their own propensities or by the demands of others — to speak extensively about matters of which they are to some degree ignorant. Closely related instances arise from the widespread conviction that it is the responsibility of a citizen in a democracy to have opinions about everything, or at least everything that pertains to the conduct of his country’s affairs. The lack of any significant connection between a person’s opinions and his apprehension of reality will be even more severe, needless to say, for someone who believes it his responsibility, as a conscientious moral agent, to evaluate events and conditions in all parts of the world.
The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality and which therefore reject the possibility of knowing how things truly are. These “anti-realist” doctrines undermine confidence in the value of disinterested efforts to determine what is true and what is false, and even in the intelligibility of the notion of objective inquiry. One response to this loss of confidence has been a retreat from the discipline required by dedication to the ideal of correctness to a quite different sort of discipline, which is imposed by pursuit of an alternative ideal of sincerity. Rather than seeking primarily to arrive at accurate representations of a common world, the individual turns toward trying to provide honest representations of himself. Convinced that reality has no inherent nature, which he might hope to identify as the truth about things, he devotes himself to being true to his own nature. It is as though he decides that since it makes no sense to try to be true to the facts, he must therefore try instead to be true to himself.
But it is preposterous to imagine that we ourselves are determinate, and hence susceptible both to correct and to incorrect descriptions, while supposing that the ascription of determinacy to anything else has been exposed as a mistake. As conscious beings, we exist only in response to other things, and we cannot know ourselves at all without knowing them. Moreover, there is nothing in theory, and certainly nothing in experience, to support the extraordinary judgment that it is the truth about himself that is the easiest for a person to know. Facts about ourselves are not peculiarly solid and resistant to skeptical dissolution. Our natures are, indeed, elusively insubstantial — notoriously less stable and less inherent than the natures of other things. And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bullshit.
Harry Frankfurt
Princeton University
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, we have no theory. I propose to begin the development of a theoretical understanding of bullshit, mainly by providing some tentative and exploratory philosophical analysis. I shall not consider the rhetorical uses and misuses of bullshit. My aim is simply to give a rough account of what bullshit is and how it differs from what it is not, or (putting it somewhat differently) to articulate, more or less sketchily, the structure of its concept. Any suggestion about what conditions are logically both necessary and sufficient for the constitution of bullshit is bound to be somewhat arbitrary. For one thing, the expression bullshit is often employed quite loosely — simply as a generic term of abuse, with no very specific literal meaning. For another, the phenomenon itself is so vast and amorphous that no crisp and perspicuous analysis of its concept can avoid being procrustean. Nonetheless it should be possible to say something helpful, even though it is not likely to be decisive. Even the most basic and preliminary questions about bullshit remain, after all, not only unanswered but unasked. So far as I am aware, very little work has been done on this subject. I have not undertaken a survey of the literature, partly because I do not know how to go about it. To be sure, there is one quite obvious place to look — the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED has an entry for bullshit in the supplementary volumes, and it also has entries for various pertinent uses of the word bull and for some related terms. I shall consider some of these entries in due course. I have not consulted dictionaries in languages other than English, because I do not know the words for bullshit or bull in any other language.
Another worthwhile source is the title essay in The Prevalence of Humbug by Max Black. I am uncertain just how close in meaning the word humbug is to the word bullshit. Of course, the words are not freely and fully interchangeable; it is clear that they are used differently. But the difference appears on the whole to have more to do with considerations of gentility, and certain other rhetorical parameters, than with the strictly literal modes of significance that concern me most. It is more polite, as well as less intense, to say “Humbug!” than to say “Bullshit!” For the sake of this discussion, I shall assume that there is no other important difference between the two, Black suggests a number of synonyms for humbug, including the following: “balderdash”, “claptrap”, “hokum”, “drivel”, “buncombe”, “imposture”, and “quackery”. This list of quaint equivalents is not very helpful. But Black also confronts the problem of establishing the nature of humbug more directly, and he offers the following formal definition:
Humbug: deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes.
A very similar formulation might plausibly be offered as enunciating the essential characteristics of bullshit. As a preliminary to developing an independent account of those characteristics, I will comment on the various elements of Black’s definition.
Deceptive misrepresentation: This may sound pleonastic. No doubt what Black has in mind is that humbug is necessarily designed or intended to deceive, that its misrepresentation is not merely inadvertent. In other words, it is deliberate misrepresentation. Now if, as a matter of conceptual necessity, an intention to deceive is an invariable feature of humbug, then the property of being humbug depends at least in part upon the perpetrator’s state of mind. It cannot be identical, accordingly, with any properties — either inherent or relational — belonging just to the utterance by which the humbug is perpetrated. In this respect, the property of being humbug is similar to that of being a lie, which is identical neither with the falsity nor with any of the other properties of the statement the liar makes, but which requires that the liar makes his statement in a certain state of mind — namely, with an intention to deceive. It is a further question whether there are any features essential to humbug or to lying that are not dependent upon the intentions and beliefs of the person responsible for the humbug or the lie, or whether it is, on the contrary, possible for any utterance whatsoever to be — given that the speaker is in a certain state of mind — a vehicle of humbug or of a lie. In some accounts of lying there is no lie unless a false statement is made; in others a person may be lying even if the statement he makes is true, as long as he himself believes that the statement is false and intends by making it to deceive. What about humbug and bullshit? May any utterance at all qualify as humbug or bullshit, given that (so to speak) the utterer’s heart is in the right place, or must the utterance have certain characteristics of its own as well?
Short of lying: It must be part of the point of saying that humbug is “short of lying,” that while it has some of the distinguishing characteristics of lies, there are others that it lacks. But this cannot be the whole point. After all, every use of language without exception has some, but not all, of the characteristic features of lies — if no other, then at least the feature simply of being a use of language. Yet it would surely be incorrect to describe every use of language as short of lying. Black’s phrase evokes the notion of some sort of continuum, on which lying occupies a certain segment while humbug is located exclusively at earlier points. What continuum could this be, along which one encounters humbug only before one encounters lying? Both lying and humbug are modes of misrepresentation. It is not at first glance apparent, however, just how the difference between these varieties of misrepresentation might be construed as a difference in degree.
Especially by pretentious word or deed: There are two points to notice here. First, Black identifies humbug not only as a category of speech but as a category of action as well; it may be accomplished either by words or by deeds. Second, his use of the qualifier “especially” indicates that Black does not regard pretentiousness as an essential or wholly indispensable characteristic of humbug. Undoubtedly, much humbug is pretentious. So far as concerns bullshit, moreover, “pretentious bullshit” is close to being a stock phrase. But I am inclined to think that when bullshit is pretentious, this happens because pretentiousness is its motive rather than a constitutive element of its essence. The fact that a person is behaving pretentiously is not, it seems to me, part of what is required to make his utterance an instance of bullshit. It is often, to be sure, what accounts for his making that utterance. However, it must not be assumed that bullshit always and necessarily has pretentiousness as its motive.
Misrepresentation … of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes: This provision that the perpetrator of humbug is essentially misrepresenting himself raises some very central issues. To begin with, whenever a person deliberately misrepresents anything, he must inevitably misrepresenting his own state of mind. It is possible, of course, for a person to misrepresent that alone — for instance, by pretending to have a desire or a feeling which he does not actually have. But suppose that a person, whether by telling a lie or in another way, misrepresents something else. Then he necessarily misrepresents at least two things. He misrepresents whatever he is talking about — i.e., the state of affairs that is the topic or referent of his discourse — and in doing this he cannot avoid misrepresenting his own mind as well. Thus, someone who lies about how much money he has in his pocket both gives an account of the amount of money in his pocket and conveys that he believes this account. If the lie works, then its victim is twice deceived, having one false belief about what is in the liar’s pocket and another false belief about what is in the liar’s mind.
Now it is unlikely that Black wishes that the referent of humbug is in every instance the state of the speaker’s mind. There is no particular reason, after all, why humbug may not be about other things. Black probably means that humbug is not designed primarily to give its audience a false belief about whatever state of affairs may be the topic, but that its primary intention is rather to give its audience a false impression concerning what is going on in the mind of the speaker. Insofar as it is humbug, the creation of this impression is its main purpose and its point. Understanding Black along these lines suggests a hypothesis to account for his characterization of humbug as “short of lying.” If I lie to you about how much money I have, then I do not thereby make an explicit assertion concerning my beliefs. Therefore, one might with some plausibility maintain that although in telling the lie I certainly misrepresent what is in my mind, this misrepresentation — as distinct from my misrepresentation of what is in my pocket — is not strictly speaking a lie at all. For I do not come right out with any statement whatever about what is in my mind. Nor does the statement I do affirm — e.g., “I have twenty dollars in my pocket” — imply any statement that attributes a belief to me. On the other hand, it is unquestionable that in so affirming, I provide you with a reasonable basis for making certain judgments about what I believe. In particular, I provide you with a reasonable basis for supposing that I believe there is twenty dollars in my pocket. Since this supposition is by hypothesis false, I do in telling the lie tend to deceive you concerning what is in my mind even though I do not actually tell a lie about that. In this light, it does not seem unnatural or inappropriate to regard me as misrepresenting my own beliefs in a way that is “short of lying.” It is easy to think of familiar situations by which Black’s account of humbug appears to be unproblematically confirmed. Consider a Fourth of July orator, who goes on bombastically about “our great and blessed country, whose Founding-Fathers under divine guidance created a new beginning for mankind.” This is surely humbug. As Black’s account suggests, the orator is not lying. He would be lying only if it were his intention to bring about in his audience beliefs which he himself regards as false, concerning such matters as whether our country is great, whether it is blessed, whether the Founders had divine guidance, and whether what they did was in fact to create a new beginning for mankind. But the orator does not really care what his audience thinks about the Founding Fathers, or about the role of the deity in our country’s history, or the like. At least, it is not an interest in what anyone thinks about these matters that motivates his speech. It is clear that what makes Fourth of July oration humbug is not fundamentally that the speaker regards his statements as false. Rather, just as Black’s account suggests, the orator intends these statements to convey a certain impression of himself. He is not trying to deceive anyone concerning American history. What he cares about is what people think of him. He wants them to think of him as a patriot, as someone who has deep thoughts and feelings about the origins and the mission of our country, who appreciates the importance of religion, who is sensitive to the greatness of our history, whose pride in that history is combined with humility before God, and so on. Black’s account of humbug appears, then, to fit certain paradigms quite snugly. Nonetheless, I do not believe that it adequately or accurately grasps the essential character of bullshit. It is correct to say of bullshit, as he says of humbug, both that it is short of lying and that chose who perpetrate it misrepresent themselves in a certain way. But Black’s account of these two features is significantly off the mark. I shall next attempt to develop, by considering some biographical material pertaining to Ludwig Wittgenstein, a preliminary but more accurately focused appreciation of just what the central characteristics of bullshit are. Wittgenstein once said that the following bit of verse by Longfellow could serve him as a motto:
In the elder days of art
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part,
For the Gods are everywhere.
The point of these lines is clear. In the old days, craftsmen did not cut corners. They worked carefully, and they took care with every aspect of their work. Every part of the product was considered, and each was designed and made to be exactly as it should be. These craftsmen did not relax their thoughtful self-discipline even with respect to features of their work which would ordinarily not be visible. Although no one would notice if those features were not quite right, the craftsmen would be bothered by their consciences. So nothing was swept under the rug. Or, one might perhaps also say, there was no bullshit.
It does seem fitting to construe carelessly made, shoddy goods as in some way analogues of bullshit. But in what way? Is the resemblance that bullshit itself is invariably produced in a careless or self-indulgent manner, that it is never finely crafted, that in the making of it there is never the meticulously attentive concern with detail to which Longfellow alludes? Is the bullshitter by his very nature a mindless slob? Is his product necessarily messy or unrefined? The word shit does, to be sure, suggest this. Excrement is not designed or crafted at all; it is merely emitted, or dumped. It may have a more or less coherent shape, or it may not, but it is in any case certainly not wrought.
The notion of carefully wrought bullshit involves, then, a certain inner strain. Thoughtful attention to detail requires discipline and objectivity. It entails accepting standards and limitations that forbid the indulgence of impulse or whim. It is this selflessness that, in connection with bullshit, strikes us as inapposite. But in fact it is not out of the question at all. The realms of advertising and of public relations, and the nowadays closely related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept. And in these realms there are exquisitely sophisticated craftsmen who — with the help of advanced and demanding techniques of market research, of public opinion polling, of psychological testing, and so forth — dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they produce exactly right.
Yet there is something more to be said about this. However studiously and conscientiously the bullshitter proceeds, it remains true that he is also trying to get away with something. There is surely in his work, as in the work of the slovenly craftsman, some kind of laxity which resists or eludes the demands of a disinterested and austere discipline. The pertinent mode of laxity cannot be equated, evidently, with simple carelessness or inattention to detail. I shall attempt in due course to locate it more correctly.
Wittgenstein devoted his philosophical energies largely to identifying and combating what he regarded as insidiously disruptive forms of “non-sense.” He was apparently like that in his personal life as well. This comes out in an anecdote related by Fania Pascal, who knew him in Cambridge in the 1930s:
I had my tonsils out and was in the Evelyn Nursing Home feeling sorry for myself. Wittgenstein called. I croaked: “I feel just like a dog that has been run over.” He was disgusted: “You don’t know what a dog that has been run over feels like.”
Now who knows what really happened? It seems extraordinary, almost unbelievable, that anyone could object seriously to what Pascal reports herself as having said. That characterization of her feelings — so innocently close to the utterly commonplace “sick as a dog” — is simply not provocative enough to arouse any response as lively or intense as disgust. If Pascal’s simile is offensive, then what figurative or allusive uses of language would not be? So perhaps it did not really happen quite as Pascal says. Perhaps Wittgenstein was trying to make a small joke, and it misfired. He was only pretending to bawl Pascal out, just for the fun of a little hyperbole; and she got the tone and the intention wrong. She thought he was disgusted by her remark, when in fact he was only trying to cheer her up with some playfully exaggerated mock criticism or joshing. In that case the incident is not incredible or bizarre after all.
But if Pascal failed to recognize that Wittgenstein was only teasing, then perhaps the possibility that he was serious was at least not so far out of the question. She knew him, and she knew what to expect from him; she knew how he made her feel. Her way of understanding or of misunderstanding his remark was very likely not altogether discordant, then, with her sense of what he was like. We may fairly suppose that even if her account of the incident is not strictly true to the facts of Wittgenstein’s intention, it is sufficiently true to her idea of Wittgenstein to have made sense to her. For the purposes of this discussion, I shall accept Pascal’s report at face value, supposing that when it came to the use of allusive or figurative language, Wittgenstein was indeed as preposterous as she makes him out to be.
Then just what is it that the Wittgenstein in her report considers to be objectionable? Let us assume that he is correct about the facts: that is, Pascal really does not know how run-over dogs feel. Even so, when she says what she does, she is plainly not lying. She would have been lying if, when she made her statement, she was aware that she actually felt quite good. For however little she knows about the lives of dogs, it must certainly be clear to Pascal that when dogs are run over they do not feel good. So if she herself had in fact been feeling good, it would have been a lie to assert that she felt like a run-over dog.
Pascal’s Wittgenstein does not intend to accuse her of lying, but of misrepresentation of another sort. She characterizes her feeling as “the feeling of a run-over dog.” She is not really acquainted, however, with the feeling to which this phrase refers. Of course, the phrase is far from being complete nonsense to her; she is hardly speaking gibberish. What she says has an intelligible connotation, which she certainly understands. Moreover, she does know something about the quality of the feeling to which the phrase refers: she knows at least that it is an undesirable and unenjoyable feeling, a bad feeling. The trouble with her statement is that it purports to convey something more than simply that she feels bad. Her characterization of her feeling is too specific; it is excessively particular. Hers is not just any bad feeling but, according to her account, the distinctive kind of bad feeling that a dog has when it is run over. To the Wittgenstein in Pascal’s story, judging from his response, this is just bullshit.
Now assuming that Wittgenstein does indeed regard Pascal’s characterization of how she feels as an instance of bullshit, why does it strike him that way? It does so, I believe, because he perceives what Pascal says as being — roughly speaking, for now — unconnected to a concern with the truth. Her statement is not germane to the enterprise of describing reality. She does not even think she knows, except in the vaguest way, how a run-over dog feels. Her description of her own feeling is, accordingly, something that she is merely making up. She concocts it out of whole cloth; or, if she got it from someone else, she is repeating it quite mindlessly and without any regard for how things really are.
It is for this mindlessness that Pascal’s Wittgenstein chides her. What disgusts him is that Pascal is not even concerned whether her statement is correct. There is every likelihood, of course, that she says what she does only in a somewhat clumsy effort to speak colorfully, or to appear vivacious or good-humored; and no doubt Wittgenstein’s reaction — as she construes it — is absurdly intolerant. Be this as it may, it seems clear what that reaction is. He reacts as though he perceives her to be speaking about her feeling thoughtlessly, without conscientious attention to the relevant facts. Her statement is not “wrought with greatest care.” She makes it without bothering to take into account at all the question of its accuracy.
The point that troubles Wittgenstein is manifestly not that Pascal has made a mistake in her description of how she feels. Nor is it even that she has made a careless mistake. Her laxity, or her lack of care, is not a matter of having permitted an error to slip into her speech on account of some inadvertent or momentarily negligent lapse in the attention she was devoting to getting things right. The point is rather that, so far as Wittgenstein can see, Pascal offers a description of a certain state of affairs without genuinely submitting to the constraints which the endeavor to provide an accurate representation of reality imposes. Her fault is not that she fails to get things right, but that she is not even trying.
This is important to Wittgenstein because, whether justifiably or not, he takes what she says seriously, as a statement purporting to give an informative description of the way she feels. He construes her as engaged in an activity to which the distinction between what is true and what is false is crucial, and yet as taking no interest in whether what she says is true or false. It is in this sense that Pascal’s statement is unconnected to a concern with truth: she is not concerned with the truth-value of what she says. That is why she cannot be regarded as lying; for she does not presume that she knows the truth, and therefore she cannot be deliberately promulgating a proposition that she presumes to be false: Her statement is grounded neither in a belief that it is true nor, as a lie must be, in a belief that it is not true. It is just this lack of connection to a concern with truth — this indifference to how things really are — that I regard as of the essence of bullshit.
Now I shall consider (quite selectively) certain items in the Oxford English Dictionary that are pertinent to clarifying the nature of bullshit. The OED defines a bull session as “an informal conversation or discussion, esp. of a group of males.” Now as a definition, this seems wrong. For one thing, the dictionary evidently supposes that the use of the term bull in bull session serves primarily just to indicate gender. But even if it were true that the participants in bull sessions are generally or typically males, the assertion that a bull session is essentially nothing more particular than an informal discussion among males would be as far off the mark as the parallel assertion that a hen session is simply an informal conversation among females. It is probably true that the participants in hen sessions must be females. Nonetheless the term hen session conveys something more specific than this concerning the particular kind of informal conversation among females to which hen sessions are characteristically devoted. What is distinctive about the sort of informal discussion among males that constitutes a bull session is, it seems to me, something like this: while the discussion may be intense and significant, it is in a certain respect not “for real.”
The characteristic topics of a bull session have to do with very personal and emotion-laden aspects of life — for instance, religion, politics, or sex. People are generally reluctant to speak altogether openly about these topics if they expect that they might be taken too seriously. What tends to go on in a bull session is that the participants try out various thoughts and attitudes in order to see how it feels to hear themselves saying such things and in order to discover how others respond, without it being assumed that they are committed to what they say: It is understood by everyone in a bull session that the statements people make do not necessarily reveal what they really believe or how they really feel. The main point is to make possible a high level of candor and an experimental or adventuresome approach to the subjects under discussion. Therefore provision is made for enjoying a certain irresponsibility, so that people will be encouraged to convey what is on their minds without too much anxiety that they will be held to it.
Each of the contributors to a bull session relies, in other words, upon a general recognition that what he expresses or says is not to be understood as being what he means wholeheartedly or believes unequivocally to be true. The purpose of the conversation is not to communicate beliefs. Accordingly, the usual assumptions about the connection between what people say and what they believe are suspended. The statements made in a bull session differ from bullshit in that there is no pretense that this connection is being sustained. They are like bullshit by virtue of the fact that they are in some degree unconstrained by a concern with truth. This resemblance between bull sessions and bullshit is suggested also by the term shooting the bull, which refers to the sort of conversation that characterizes bull sessions and in which the term shooting is very likely a cleaned-up rendition of shitting. The very term bull session is, indeed, quite probably a sanitized version of bullshit session. A similar theme is discernible in a British usage of bull in which, according to the OED, the term refers to “unnecessary routine tasks or ceremonial; excessive discipline or ‘spit-and-polish’; = red-tape.” The dictionary provides the following examples of this usage:
“The Squadron … felt very bolshie about all that bull that was flying around the station” (I. Gleed, Arise to Conquer vi. 51, I942); “Them turning out the guard for us, us marching past eyes right, all that sort of bull” (A. Baron, Human Kind xxiv. 178, 1953); the drudgery and ‘bull’ in an MP’s life.” (Economist 8 Feb. 470/471, 1958)
Here the term bull evidently pertains to tasks that are pointless in that they have nothing much to do with the primary intent or justifying purpose of the enterprise which requires them. Spit-and-polish and red tape do not genuinely contribute, it is presumed, to the “real” purposes of military personnel or government officials, even though they are imposed by agencies or agents that purport to be conscientiously devoted to the pursuit of those purposes. Thus the “unnecessary routine tasks or ceremonial” that constitute bull are disconnected from the legitimating motives of the activity upon which they intrude, just as the things people say in bull sessions are disconnected from their settled beliefs, and as bullshit is disconnected from a concern with the truth.
The term bull is also employed, in a rather more widespread and familiar usage, as a somewhat less coarse equivalent of bullshit. In an entry for bull as so used, the OED suggests the following as definitive: “trivial, insincere, or untruthful talk or writing; nonsense.” Now it does not seem distinctive of bull either that it must be deficient in meaning or that it is necessarily unimportant; so “nonsense” and “trivial,” even apart from their vagueness, seem to be on the wrong track. The focus of “insincere, or untruthful” is better, but it needs to be sharpened. The entry at hand also provides the following two definitions:
1914 Dialect Notes IV. 162 Bull, talk which is not to the purpose; “hot air.”
I 932 Times Lit. Supp. 8 Dec. 933/3 “Bull” is the slang term for a combination of bluff, bravado, “hot air” and what we used to call in the Army “Kidding the troops”
“Not to the purpose” is appropriate, but it is both too broad in scope and too vague. It covers digressions and innocent irrelevancies, which are not invariably instances of bull; furthermore, saying that bull is not to the purpose leaves it uncertain what purpose is meant. The reference in both definitions to “hot air” is more helpful. When we characterize talk as hot air, we mean that what comes out of the speaker’s mouth is only that. It is mere vapor. His speech is empty, without substance or content. His use of language, accordingly, does not contribute to the purpose it purports to serve. No more information is communicated than if the speaker had merely exhaled. There are similarities between hot air and excrement, incidentally, which make hot air seem an especially suitable equivalent for bullshit. Just as hot air is speech that has been emptied of all informative content, so excrement is matter from which everything nutritive has been removed. Excrement may be regarded as the corpse of nourishment, what remains when the vital elements in food have been exhausted. In this respect, excrement is a representation of death which we ourselves produce and which, indeed, we cannot help producing in the very process of maintaining our lives. Perhaps it is for making death so intimate that we find excrement so repulsive. In any event, it cannot serve the purposes of sustenance, any more than hot air can serve those of cummunication.
Now consider these lines from Pound’s Canto LXXIV, which the OED cites in its entry on bullshit as a verb:
Hey Snag wots in the bibl’?
Wot are the books ov the bible?
Name ’em, don’t bullshit ME.
This is a call for the facts. The person addressed is evidently regarded as having in some way claimed to know the Bible, or as having claimed to care about it. The speaker suspects that this is just empty talk, and demands that the claim be supported with facts. He will not accept a mere report; he insists upon seeing the thing itself. In other words, he is calling the bluff. The connection between bullshit and bluff is affirmed explicitly in the definition with which the lines by Pound are associated:
As v. truns. and intr., to talk nonsense (to); … also, to bluff one’s way through (something) by talking nonsense.
It does seem that bullshitting involves a kind of bluff. It is closer to bluffing, surely than to telling a lie. But what is implied concerning its nature by the fact that it is more like the former than it is like the latter? Just what is the relevant difference here between a bluff and a lie? Lying and bluffing are both modes of misrepresentation or deception. Now the concept most central to the distinctive nature of a lie is that of falsity: the liar is essentially someone who deliberately promulgates a falsehood. Bluffing too is typically devoted to conveying something false. Unlike plain lying, however, it is more especially a matter not of falsity but of fakery. This is what accounts for its nearness to bullshit. For the essence of bullshit is not that it is false but that it isphony. In order to appreciate this distinction, one must recognize that a fake or a phony need not be in any respect (apart from authenticity itself) inferior to the real thing. What is not genuine need not also be defective in some other way. It may be, after all, an exact copy. What is wrong with a counterfeit is not what it is like, but how it was made. This points to a similar and fundamental aspect of the essential nature of bullshit: although it is produced without concern with the truth, it need not be false. The bullshitter is faking things. But this does not mean that he necessarily gets them wrong.
In Eric Ambler’s novel Dirty Story, a character named Arthur Abdel Simpson recalls advice that he received as a child from his father:
Although I was only seven when my father was killed, I still remember him very well and some of the things he used to say. … One of the first things he taught me was, “Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through.”
This presumes not only that there is an important difference between lying and bullshitting, but that the latter is preferable to the former. Now the elder Simpson surely did not consider bullshitting morally superior to lying. Nor is it likely that he regarded lies as invariably less effective than bullshit in accomplishing the purposes for which either of them might be employed. After all, an intelligently crafted lie may do its work with unqualified success. It may be that Simpson thought it easier to get away with bullshitting than with lying. Or perhaps he meant that, although the risk of being caught is about the same in each case, the consequences of being caught are generally less severe for the bullshitter than for the liar. In fact, people do tend to be more tolerant of bullshit than of lies, perhaps because we are less inclined to take the former as a personal affront. We may seek to distance ourselves from bullshit, but we are more likely to turn away from it with an impatient or irritated shrug than with the sense of violation or outrage that lies often inspire. The problem of understanding why our attitude toward bullshit is generally more benign than our attitude toward lying is an important one, which I shall leave as an exercise for the reader. The pertinent comparison is not, however, between telling a lie and producing some particular instance of bullshit. The elder Simpson identifies the alternative to telling a lie as “bullshitting one’s way through.” This involves not merely producing one instance of bullshit; it involves a program of producing bullshit to whatever extent the circumstances require. This is a key, perhaps, to his preference. Telling a lie is an act with a sharp focus. It is designed to insert a particular falsehood at a specific point in a set or system of beliefs, in order to avoid the consequences of having that point occupied by the truth. This requires a degree of craftsmanship, in which the teller of the lie submits to objective constraints imposed by what he takes to be the truth. The liar is inescapably concerned with truth-values. In order to invent a lie at all, he must think he knows what is true. And in order to invent an effective lie, he must design his falsehood under the guidance of that truth. On the other hand, a person who undertakes to bullshit his way through has much more freedom. His focus is panoramic rather than particular. He does not limit himself to inserting a certain falsehood at a specific point, and thus he is not constrained by the truths surrounding that point or intersecting it. He is prepared to fake the context as well, so far as need requires. This freedom from the constraints to which the liar must submit does not necessarily mean, of course, that his task is easier than the task of the liar. But the mode of creativity upon which it relies is less analytical and less deliberative than that which is mobilized in lying. It is more expansive and independent, with mare spacious opportunities for improvisation, color, and imaginative play. This is less a matter of craft than of art. Hence the familiar notion of the “bullshit artist.” My guess is that the recommendation offered by Arthur Simpson’s father reflects the fact that he was more strongly drawn to this mode of creativity, regardless of its relative merit or effectiveness, than he was to the more austere and rigorous demands of lying.
What bullshit essentially misrepresents is neither the state of affairs to which it refers nor the beliefs of the speaker concerning that state of affairs. Those are what lies misrepresent, by virtue of being false. Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its misrepresentational intent. The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to.
This is the crux of the distinction between him and the liar. Both he and the liar represent themselves falsely as endeavoring to communicate the truth. The success of each depends upon deceiving us about that. But the fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor co conceal it. This does not mean that his speech is anarchically impulsive, but that the motive guiding and controlling it is unconcerned with how the things about which he speaks truly are.
It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.
In his essay, “Lying,” St. Augustine distinguishes lies of eight types, which he classifies according to the characteristic intent or justification with which a lie is told. Lies of seven of these types are told only because they are supposed to be indispensable means to some end that is distinct from the sheer creation of false beliefs. It is not their falsity as such, in other words, that attracts the teller to them. Since they are told only on account of their supposed indispensability to a goal other than deception itself, St. Augustine regards them as being told unwillingly: what the person really wants is not to tell the lie but to attain the goal. They are therefore not real lies, in his view, and those who tell them are not in the strictest sense liars. It is only the remaining category that contains what he identifies as “the lie which is told solely for the pleasure of lying and deceiving, that is, the real lie.” Lies in this category are not told as means to any end distinct form the propagation of falsehood. They are told simply for their own sakes — i.e., purely out of a love of deception:
There is a distinction between a person who tells a lie and a liar. The former is one who tells a lie unwillingly, while the liar loves to lie and passes his time in the joy of lying. … The latter takes delight in lying, rejoicing in the falsehood itself.
What Augustine calls “liars” and “real lies” are both rare and extraordinary. Everyone lies from time to time, but there are very few people to whom it would often (or even ever) occur to lie exclusively from a love of falsity or of deception. For most people, the fact that a statement is false constitutes in itself a reason, however weak and easily overridden, not to make the statement.
For St. Augustine’s pure liar it is, on the contrary, a reason in favor of making it. For the bullshitter it is in itself neither a reason in favor nor a reason against. Both in lying and in telling the truth people are guided by their beliefs concerning the way things are. These guide them as they endeavor either to describe the world correctly or to describe it deceitfully. For this reason, telling lies does not tend to unfit a person for telling the truth in the same way that bullshitting tends to. Through excessive indulgence in the latter activity, which involves making assertions without paying attention to anything except what it suits one to say, a person’s normal habit of attending to the ways things are may become attenuated or lost. Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.
One who is concerned to report or to conceal the facts assumes that there are indeed facts that are in some way both determinate and knowable. His interest in telling the truth or in lying presupposes that there is a difference between getting things wrong and getting them right, and that it is at least occasionally possible to tell the difference. Someone who ceases to believe in the possibility of identifying certain statements as true and others as false can have only two alternatives. The first is to desist both from efforts to tell the truth and from efforts to deceive. This would mean refraining from making any assertion whatever about the facts. The second alternative is to continue making assertions that purport to describe the way things are but that cannot be anything except bullshit.
Why is there so much bullshit? Of course it is impossible to be sure that there is relatively more of it nowadays than at other times. There is more communication of all kinds in our time than ever before, but the proportion that is bullshit may not have increased. Without assuming that the incidence of bullshit is actually greater now, I will mention a few considerations that help to account for the fact that it is currently so great.
Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic are more excessive than his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic. This discrepancy is common in public life, where people are frequently impelled — whether by their own propensities or by the demands of others — to speak extensively about matters of which they are to some degree ignorant. Closely related instances arise from the widespread conviction that it is the responsibility of a citizen in a democracy to have opinions about everything, or at least everything that pertains to the conduct of his country’s affairs. The lack of any significant connection between a person’s opinions and his apprehension of reality will be even more severe, needless to say, for someone who believes it his responsibility, as a conscientious moral agent, to evaluate events and conditions in all parts of the world.
The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality and which therefore reject the possibility of knowing how things truly are. These “anti-realist” doctrines undermine confidence in the value of disinterested efforts to determine what is true and what is false, and even in the intelligibility of the notion of objective inquiry. One response to this loss of confidence has been a retreat from the discipline required by dedication to the ideal of correctness to a quite different sort of discipline, which is imposed by pursuit of an alternative ideal of sincerity. Rather than seeking primarily to arrive at accurate representations of a common world, the individual turns toward trying to provide honest representations of himself. Convinced that reality has no inherent nature, which he might hope to identify as the truth about things, he devotes himself to being true to his own nature. It is as though he decides that since it makes no sense to try to be true to the facts, he must therefore try instead to be true to himself.
But it is preposterous to imagine that we ourselves are determinate, and hence susceptible both to correct and to incorrect descriptions, while supposing that the ascription of determinacy to anything else has been exposed as a mistake. As conscious beings, we exist only in response to other things, and we cannot know ourselves at all without knowing them. Moreover, there is nothing in theory, and certainly nothing in experience, to support the extraordinary judgment that it is the truth about himself that is the easiest for a person to know. Facts about ourselves are not peculiarly solid and resistant to skeptical dissolution. Our natures are, indeed, elusively insubstantial — notoriously less stable and less inherent than the natures of other things. And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bullshit.
GOALS in POKER - LIFE and BLOGS!
Years ago.. I ran a site called "goallin.com" with over 1600 signed members. I started the site BEFORE the MONEYMAKER poker boom... I had a goal of 100 members at first... I hit that goal and then some. (GOALLIN is now owned by someone else, as I sold my rights to the domain name) I wanted something different and with a different SPIN on "my poker...." That's water under the bridge.. (Plus, I made a few bucks selling the site.. so it's all good)Just after GOALLIN, some of you know I got a tad sick.. and left "productive" status for a time.. (Just over 2 years) TWO YEARS where the GOAL was to GET HEALTHY AGAIN.. TO GET MOVING! (another goal - in the bag!) :)
Since my mid teens - I've learned to have/set goals and have done well with doing so.. not only with hitting them (making them happen) - but ALWAYS coming up with new ones on a regular basis..
THESE DAYS!!! Feeling much better..NOTHING changes! I'm still setting and making new goals! THIS IS A VERY GOOD THING! (If you are not doing so! I suggest you GET ON IT! TODAY!)
I'm working on making two new sites - THIS BLOG and "another" poker related site for a radio pod cast I'm doing with a lady friend of mine from Texas, (we are both PUMPED about it too) I'm not sure of the name of the show yet - but I'm it might have something of a POKER slang - twang to it. I'm sure - if you like POKER and our little blog here - YOU will enjoy our poker discussions....
Check out here blog today (CLICK THIS LINK)- Dr Tricia is her name.
This blog is coming along - slow but sure... Problem is..It's summer now and my WORK/LIFE outside of poker must be attended to - Garden, JUST PLAIN BEING OUTDOORS! Our Rentals (spring fix ups and what not) and of course - my home - which always has me working overtime... it's no worry or much of a chore as pretty much - I love doing it.
Let's see...
I added MUSIC to our BLOG today - but I'm not sure if it FITS well here.. (This is no "myspace") I'm not sure if MUSIC and BLOGS on POKER work???
I also added a really neat signature book - which is filling up rather fast! (Friends from all over the world!!!) Please - if you are reading this - TELL every poker player about this site - I'm collecting SIGNATURES much like a HAM RADIO enthusiast... that and I love chatting poker - so the MORE players here the better!! Many of the early signatures HAVE been friends of mine for YEARS now... Of course, some are NEW friends - WELCOME ALL! LETS HEAR ABOUT POKER IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD! (leave a comment - or a question.. Any POKER TOPIC, from strategy to travel..) ONE can never have TOO many FRIENDS...
I added a POLL - on the music - hit me up with your thoughts on the subject - I'm not sure all will understand how to MUTE the music if find the tunes not to their liking.. (It will be neat to see what people think)
So - My goals this week are many - and include my family, heavy labor house repairs, my rentals - my job - My Elks programs (VETS) - NEW ITEMS that will no doubt POP up and my poker game... I must have a 1'st place finish on FULLTILT this week or I'll be ill (Again!).... SO MANY FISH making poor poker decisions!! (I finished 22/90 today due to over playing a hand... something that I rarely do) Why we lose some of these usually LOCK HANDS .. or RACE HANDS I'll never understand some days.. Some days with POKER - we are NOT meant to win no matter what...
I know! I'll set a goal to WIN tomorrow!
I hope you will too!
GO NUTS! If you have a goal to let your hair grow long or to make a BOLD statement - REALLY MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!
Thanks for reading! If you have not done so yet - Please sign out guest book - and tell a friend!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
GOLDCOAST = WINNER!!!! FREE $5.50 on FULL TILT!
Winner !
$5.50 on FULLTILT
Give me you screen name on FULLTILT and PLAY a tourney on STANDBACKWORLD
Congratulations and THANKS for reading our blog...
IF YOU WERE SIGNED UP UNDER OR BANNERS - YOU WOULD HAVE WON DOUBLE! ACTIVE PLAYERS UNDER OUR BANNERS, TRIPLE PAY!!!
SIGN UP TODAY!!!! by clicking here - FULLTILT POKER SIGNUP
$5.50 on FULLTILT
Give me you screen name on FULLTILT and PLAY a tourney on STANDBACKWORLD
Congratulations and THANKS for reading our blog...
IF YOU WERE SIGNED UP UNDER OR BANNERS - YOU WOULD HAVE WON DOUBLE! ACTIVE PLAYERS UNDER OUR BANNERS, TRIPLE PAY!!!
SIGN UP TODAY!!!! by clicking here - FULLTILT POKER SIGNUP
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Friends for LIFE
A very good friend of many years...
When I win in the WSOP - I'll be happy have Randy watch my pile of winnings.. Randy had my back now for over 23 years...
If any of you readers end up having just ONE friend like this man - you are way ahead of things in life.. Why he's holding the knife - I have NO idea! Randy dealt the high money poker games in my backroom - (Years ago in my OTHER life...)
Many days and nights I've spent in this little Elks kitchen cooking breakfasts/Dinners (with/for) the members - Here we are cooking for the GOLF league... (AGAIN!)
If you are an Elks member - STOP IN SOON! The food is always FRESH and AWESOME! Elks Lodge # 200 - Hazleton, Pa.
If you are not an ELK - Join up at your local lodge soon.. (you are missing out on good times)
The Elks are all about God and country. (If you have any other questions - just ask)
What does it mean? PRO at FULL TILT?
What do you ladies and gents think it means to be one of the FULLTILT poker pros..
I plan on looking into this - if anyone has any idea - or cares to guess - PLEASE DO.
I mean.. Do they MAKE % of take? Get paid every month? What?
Better QUESTION - What does it mean to WEAR "BRANDS" of ANY major online poker site?
Do any PAY?
Is it exposure you receive?
comps? what?????
We will want to know - so when we make a final table - we are in good position to make the best move..
I'm not wearing anyones CAP for free.. Not even my favorite site - FULLTILT
Saturday, April 19, 2008
GOLDCOAST
Yo!
"GOLDCOAST" (The QUIZ from a few days back)
Did I miss something - I need an answer to NUMBER THREE!!! Unless I read the comments wrong - Your answer did not show for #3.
Get # 3 in and YOU are a lock for the win... (not too many wanting to play it seems)
"GOLDCOAST" (The QUIZ from a few days back)
Did I miss something - I need an answer to NUMBER THREE!!! Unless I read the comments wrong - Your answer did not show for #3.
Get # 3 in and YOU are a lock for the win... (not too many wanting to play it seems)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Back to basics POKER TELLS.. FUN QUIZ!
I'm really into re-hashing my books on TELLS... (poker and life) So I think I'll keep with this topic for a little longer... and probably keep coming back to it from time to time as I see fit.
However...
Rather than just GO on and on about the subject of TELLS - Lets have some fun! I'm going to ask THREE questions - The FIRST reader to get them correct (all 3) will WIN a Free $5.50 on FULL TILT poker... FROM good old me! and get this.. I'll double it if they play UNDER our "santa" bonus code on full tilt. (The "santa" code is for our AUTISTIC KIDS Christmas Party)
WHAT THAT ? You are not signed up at FULL TILT? SHAME ON YOU! HELP OUR KIDS OUT! USE THE BONUS CODE "SANTA" and hit the LINK on this page when you do it.. (It's on the left hand side - Look for Phil Ivey!) or just hit this link!
it's the easy way!FULL TILT HOME PAGE
So here we go -
NO CHEATING!
1. A player with a large amount of chips in a POT, that IS ON A MAJOR BLUFF AS WELL - might show what sort of tells? Name TWO tells you know of.. (FYI - This is a weak to average player)
2. Please explain how DISTANCE might be something of a tell.. (NO you can NOT USE DISTANCE for your answer to QUESTION #1.) *Get close to an acceptable answer and I'll give it to you - this is basic poker stuff and the KEY here is to learn and HAVE FUN while doing so..
Many of us here did our 12 years in school, hated it! and had enough...lol ON TO QUESTION #3...
3.If a PLAYER with a sub par hand wanted to deter another from entering a pot.. He/she might show some form of ___________________ to help make this happen. Hint! Starts with a letter before B.
YOU can ANSWER in the COMMENTS!!! Go ahead give it a shot! play a $5.00 NL tourney in US if you are the FIRST to get them all right! Give us your first name in the comment and your STATE! or COUNTRY.
However...
Rather than just GO on and on about the subject of TELLS - Lets have some fun! I'm going to ask THREE questions - The FIRST reader to get them correct (all 3) will WIN a Free $5.50 on FULL TILT poker... FROM good old me! and get this.. I'll double it if they play UNDER our "santa" bonus code on full tilt. (The "santa" code is for our AUTISTIC KIDS Christmas Party)
WHAT THAT ? You are not signed up at FULL TILT? SHAME ON YOU! HELP OUR KIDS OUT! USE THE BONUS CODE "SANTA" and hit the LINK on this page when you do it.. (It's on the left hand side - Look for Phil Ivey!) or just hit this link!
it's the easy way!FULL TILT HOME PAGE
So here we go -
NO CHEATING!
1. A player with a large amount of chips in a POT, that IS ON A MAJOR BLUFF AS WELL - might show what sort of tells? Name TWO tells you know of.. (FYI - This is a weak to average player)
2. Please explain how DISTANCE might be something of a tell.. (NO you can NOT USE DISTANCE for your answer to QUESTION #1.) *Get close to an acceptable answer and I'll give it to you - this is basic poker stuff and the KEY here is to learn and HAVE FUN while doing so..
Many of us here did our 12 years in school, hated it! and had enough...lol ON TO QUESTION #3...
3.If a PLAYER with a sub par hand wanted to deter another from entering a pot.. He/she might show some form of ___________________ to help make this happen. Hint! Starts with a letter before B.
YOU can ANSWER in the COMMENTS!!! Go ahead give it a shot! play a $5.00 NL tourney in US if you are the FIRST to get them all right! Give us your first name in the comment and your STATE! or COUNTRY.
A quick prediction and some POKER too..
OK - I'm just a tad into politics.. If you read my BLOG you know this. You also know I like RON PAUL. (I know - I know - FAT CHANCE) But here is the thing - I'm a democrat and I don't like either of the TWO CHOICES I'm faced with..
I predict - that if these two DO NOT knock it off with the silly stuff.. BOTH will end up LOSING out BIGTIME out.. when at last minute - AL GORE pops back on to the scene (like SUPERMAN!) and DECLARES he's READY TO RUN! Yeppers! You read it here folks! I'm not into AL all that much either - but I'll give him this.. THE WEATHER SURE IS CHANGING! (any fool can see that)
SIDE NOTE -I'm just not sure of what degree the weather is changing and what it all means... (who the hell does? Do you know?)
Al could do it too! REMEMBER he was the ONE that ALREADY WAS ELECTED to be PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES! "by the PEOPLE.." and I say he could make a LATE - last minute charge for the white house.. AGAIN! He can get away with jumping in LATE too - because of the CLOSE RACE between the TWO (neck and neck) front runners.. (Is there anyone that believes either of these two?? PROTECTING the AVERAGE AMERICAN - "yeah right!!!" What a stroke fest people - WAKE UP!)
VOTE RON PAUL!!!
Don't say it can't happen! POLITICS gets UGLY at times!
If GORE pulls this off! You can come back and SAY "I told you so...."
If not - This country is screwed! Why?? Because this race is going to TURN our country's clock BACK some 30 years! They are SPREADING/SELLING HATE like "HATE" is going out of business.. (Illegal aliens.. RACE CARD.. WOMEN... Oh yeah - this is going to be AWESOME to watch!)
Everyone knows this COUNTRY was/is being sold out to the HIGHEST BIDDER... Look at all the FAT CATS in WASHINGTON D.C. (Voting for the PEOPLE or for their bottom line???)
What do you think? I could be wrong.. but I doubt it... I just have the nads to LIVE in reality and speak the truth...
GOD BLESS AMERICA! She is going to need it!!!
AMERICA WAS ONCE A BEAUTIFUL LADY! Now, DUE TO THE SELL OUTS IN Washington D.C. she's starting to LOOK like a beat up old hag! (This cigar/hag picture is for BILLY CLINTON - for not being able to COP up to being busted FOR BEING A BAD BOY! He's another SELL OUT bum.. NAFTA. SELLING OUR PORTS, etc..)
Point is.. The BUMS are running/ruining the country!!! BUMS!
I'll be back on later tonight (from work) with a good TIP on POKER! PROMISE!!!
I predict - that if these two DO NOT knock it off with the silly stuff.. BOTH will end up LOSING out BIGTIME out.. when at last minute - AL GORE pops back on to the scene (like SUPERMAN!) and DECLARES he's READY TO RUN! Yeppers! You read it here folks! I'm not into AL all that much either - but I'll give him this.. THE WEATHER SURE IS CHANGING! (any fool can see that)
SIDE NOTE -I'm just not sure of what degree the weather is changing and what it all means... (who the hell does? Do you know?)
Al could do it too! REMEMBER he was the ONE that ALREADY WAS ELECTED to be PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES! "by the PEOPLE.." and I say he could make a LATE - last minute charge for the white house.. AGAIN! He can get away with jumping in LATE too - because of the CLOSE RACE between the TWO (neck and neck) front runners.. (Is there anyone that believes either of these two?? PROTECTING the AVERAGE AMERICAN - "yeah right!!!" What a stroke fest people - WAKE UP!)
VOTE RON PAUL!!!
Don't say it can't happen! POLITICS gets UGLY at times!
If GORE pulls this off! You can come back and SAY "I told you so...."
If not - This country is screwed! Why?? Because this race is going to TURN our country's clock BACK some 30 years! They are SPREADING/SELLING HATE like "HATE" is going out of business.. (Illegal aliens.. RACE CARD.. WOMEN... Oh yeah - this is going to be AWESOME to watch!)
Everyone knows this COUNTRY was/is being sold out to the HIGHEST BIDDER... Look at all the FAT CATS in WASHINGTON D.C. (Voting for the PEOPLE or for their bottom line???)
What do you think? I could be wrong.. but I doubt it... I just have the nads to LIVE in reality and speak the truth...
GOD BLESS AMERICA! She is going to need it!!!
AMERICA WAS ONCE A BEAUTIFUL LADY! Now, DUE TO THE SELL OUTS IN Washington D.C. she's starting to LOOK like a beat up old hag! (This cigar/hag picture is for BILLY CLINTON - for not being able to COP up to being busted FOR BEING A BAD BOY! He's another SELL OUT bum.. NAFTA. SELLING OUR PORTS, etc..)
Point is.. The BUMS are running/ruining the country!!! BUMS!
I'll be back on later tonight (from work) with a good TIP on POKER! PROMISE!!!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
WELCOME TO ALL "PSO" TURKEYS!
Down below are the "STANDBACKWORLD" WILD turkeys!!!!
GOT YA!
(and... NO - I did not mean YOU were a TURKEY!) C'mon!!!
Everyone knows it's ME that is the BOSS "TOM" Turkey anyway....
I hope you will come back from time to time... I hoe you are getting nothing but A's today!!!
GOT YA!
(and... NO - I did not mean YOU were a TURKEY!) C'mon!!!
Everyone knows it's ME that is the BOSS "TOM" Turkey anyway....
I hope you will come back from time to time... I hoe you are getting nothing but A's today!!!
SOMETHING SPECIAL from this past weekend at work..
WILD TURKEYS!!!
The world around me is SO alive!
Here is a picture I snapped while at work - It's just one of my many views of the great WILD around all of us. This picture was shot from about a football field away with a (pro consumer type model) digital zoom camera..
Not bad!
I plan on showing my little girl this image in the morning..
There are times these fantastic creatures come up to the door of my work.. I'm told they can SEE 50 times as well as you and me... Funny how happenings like these can creap up on you if you are IN THE RIGHT PLACE at the RIGHT TIME.
THANK GOD for the ZOOM lens and digital cameras..
Enjoy!
The world around me is SO alive!
Here is a picture I snapped while at work - It's just one of my many views of the great WILD around all of us. This picture was shot from about a football field away with a (pro consumer type model) digital zoom camera..
Not bad!
I plan on showing my little girl this image in the morning..
There are times these fantastic creatures come up to the door of my work.. I'm told they can SEE 50 times as well as you and me... Funny how happenings like these can creap up on you if you are IN THE RIGHT PLACE at the RIGHT TIME.
THANK GOD for the ZOOM lens and digital cameras..
Enjoy!
Monday, April 14, 2008
STATS on PLAYERS - Can you always trust them?
I was playing on full tilt the other night - nothing big... $10.00 sit n go - I came in 3rd.
During the game - One of the players made a statement (or a weak taunt) that he "checked my stats" - Huh I typed back.. well - I'm in trouble now. But it got me to thinking? Can we TRUST the info in STATS?
I know for a fact that on some accounts - MANY players play same screen name. These players have different levels of skill and thus - mess with the TRUE stats... no?
I'd also like to know how some of you feel about online players having the ability to CHECK up on you (stats) - To me - it seems like INFORMATION that should not be shared.. by a simple stroke of the keys...
I'm too old school - I like to FIND OUT for myself if you are a PLAYER or a FISH. To date I have not looked up ONE player that I faced online... and my outcomes were just fine...
How about that?
I can understand people wanting to know this info - and I'll even go as far as to say IF IT'S OUT THERE - they should take the FREE info - if they can - but I'll also say that it's yet another item that KILLS true poker.
If you want to know how I play - PLAY ME! PLAY ME for a few nights/weeks... and figure it all out for yourself...
I could be wrong - What the hell do I know?
What do YOU think????
During the game - One of the players made a statement (or a weak taunt) that he "checked my stats" - Huh I typed back.. well - I'm in trouble now. But it got me to thinking? Can we TRUST the info in STATS?
I know for a fact that on some accounts - MANY players play same screen name. These players have different levels of skill and thus - mess with the TRUE stats... no?
I'd also like to know how some of you feel about online players having the ability to CHECK up on you (stats) - To me - it seems like INFORMATION that should not be shared.. by a simple stroke of the keys...
I'm too old school - I like to FIND OUT for myself if you are a PLAYER or a FISH. To date I have not looked up ONE player that I faced online... and my outcomes were just fine...
How about that?
I can understand people wanting to know this info - and I'll even go as far as to say IF IT'S OUT THERE - they should take the FREE info - if they can - but I'll also say that it's yet another item that KILLS true poker.
If you want to know how I play - PLAY ME! PLAY ME for a few nights/weeks... and figure it all out for yourself...
I could be wrong - What the hell do I know?
What do YOU think????
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Let's talk BASIC "people reading" skills at the poker table.
Reading people at the table (The basics)
One of the key Tricks/skills most good poker players have is the ability to read their opponents. The goal of this blog today is to get any players (Either players new to poker) Or ones with a long history at the felt - to UNDERSTAND how important it is to KNOW and Understand this....
I'll focus in on LIVE games today... It's more my BAG.. and because, let's face it a live game gives us MUCH more to look out for...
Some of you are out there are good at playing cards - I just have to ask?? Is there something you might NOT BE DOING (a skill you can learn) that will have you playing MORE SOUND poker and give you an additional edge.(In other words - Are you actually "PLAYING POKER" or are you just "playing cards") How many of you are just playing top knotch starting cards (and let the chips fall where they may no matter what goes on in the ACTION/hand?) or maybe you're just playing your "late seat position" in any givin hand of poker?
If you don't know the answer - that's OK - I'll tell you how many - like 70 PLUS %.
I suggest to any readers of this blog that you try and put a little more effort into learning the art of READING POKER TELLS... or the advanced reading of people at the poker table. It's best to use such skills both when your in action (in a hand) and when you have just folded a hand... (To gain info for a future hand) Start out by WATCHING on just one player and branch out from there as you become more skilled at doing it.
Spotting collaborative tells is something that will give you a major edge in any game. God knows why - but for some reason THIS SUBJECT was something that I was always good at from my early years in poker (reading people that is - reading tells)- It was something that I was lucky enough to have had friends teach me in the early years.. It was something that I kept adding to as the years went by..
I'd like to REFRESH my early years of study and eventually maybe end up learning those last few ADVANCED tricks I'm (to this date) unable to "see..."
If you like - you can ask questions or make statements in the comments section here and I will try to answer (or find the answer) to your question. We can learn and even re-learn some things together... It's always good to GO back and REFRESH your old study material..
Listen to this example I re-read tonight in the book "read 'em and reap" of a basic situation you might see while playing with a weaker player. Then sleep on this QUESTION - (should YOU be putting more into learning to read poker tells)
If you see an opponent put a large bet in the pot and then note that his legs are wrapped around his chair, he's holding his breath, he remains very still, and HIS HANDS ARE IN A PIOUS (praying) position.. One can suspect he's bluffing.. He's scared stiff that he is going to be called
So????
Are you "seeing" things like this at the tables? Did you even THINK/KNOW to look?? If not - I'd suggest you start doing so today! (Trying to anyways) I'll even suggest to you that you buy the book mentioned above AND others as well on the subject.
You ability to win more POTS/TOURNEYS with this sort of skill/Information will MORE than pay the cost of any $29.99 books out there..
In future blogs - I'll go deeper and deeper into this sorta thing..what "tells" to look for and ALSO how to watch out for some TRICKS from other POKER PROS out there trying to send you a MIXED tell.. (In other words - trying to GET you to think they are holding a weak hand when they in fact DO NOT.)
It takes a while to learn "people reading skills..." and how to read poker players while in a game.. it takes patience and practice, but YOU too, can do it! Let's learn together and pull in HUGE pots!
Hey! YOU!
If you have questions on this SPECIAL TOPIC (Special to me) OR any other questions actually - Please, just say so (You can do so in the comments link on this blog - below) - I'll try to get an answer and my take on anything you might bring up.
If no questions - I'll just muddle foward in the coming months..
My favorite players in NL poker are the three on this post. Ted Forest, Eric Seidel and Phil Ivey... (In that order)
Hope your catching nothing but A's tonight!
Friday, April 11, 2008
We are running a BUS TRIP - ANY LOCAL READERS!
HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE VIEW FROM OUR SEATS!
Dodger Vs.Phillies - Friday, August 22 Bus LEAVES Elks parking lot at 3:30pm (Promptly) - Tickets $60 ($55 for kids and Seniors) Includes - (1) hoagie and soda on way down to game.
Contact Tom Dwyer Or Joe Ferrare at the Elks bar!
Price includes (1) Ticket and ride home.. Section 314
See Tom or Joe - by May 30th for seats available. Payment due IN FULL. (non refundable)
Thursday, April 10, 2008
(QUESTIONS FROM A POKER PRO ON SPORTS WAGERING)
One night, just for fun I was lurking around the Internet and I stumbled (litteraly - see the banner ad on this page "STUMBLE" ) I started chatting with the owner "DANNY" and then thought it would be cool to ask him a few questions about wagering on sports... (Something I know little about) He agreed to do it and allow us to POST it here on standbackworld.
It's NOT poker, however... I have found over the years that MANY of the poker players at the tables are into sports betting in a MAJOR way. If you are into sports and wagering! Check out DANNY'S link after you give this a read - Enjoy!
NOTE - We did this mini interview via e-mail. I think much of what he has to say is neat reading and I hope many of you like it as well.. One day soon - I hope to get Danny on our new podcast show that we are working on...that is due in a few weeks.
Here we go.
Danny - Can you tell us a little about yourself and your site. (How old) (How it all started) etc.. WHY YOU DO IT and what you write about on your site? Well I started my main blog dropoutinvestor.blogspot.com because alot of my friends always saw me as the guy to talk to about money because i made alot of it while i was in college if you read my blog you can find out how i made enough to drop out early..
Please tell us how YOU got started in SPORTS WAGERING? Ive always been a huge sports fan living in Texas you got a lot of great teams,spurs,rockers,mavs,cowboys,astros threes just always good sports on and I have a huge knowledge of these teams and when a friend of mine showed me intertops and how a person could bet straight up winners i was hooked I didn't really get into spread betting until later.
Your fave sport to wager on? TEAM(s) basketball its too easy, always go golden state on the over no joke, and then do teasers and adjust the spread and go under on slow pace teams like San Antonio,Boston,Houston or go over on Denver or golden state games and your good every time, check out my sports blog ipickthewinners.blogpspot.com i have a pretty good record month in month out.
What is the worse run you ever had with sports betting - negative week, month - hour?? lol Yikes the biggest bet I ever made $550 well $275 is the max intertops allows so i got a friend to make an account and I went all in on 2 accounts for the rockets Celtics game a few weeks back Houston at home i went on the over which was low like 171 or 174 i believe and Houston laid a dud on me 68 pts i think at home w/22 gm streak on the line
What is the BEST? I made about $5000+ on the rockets 22 gm streak I'm a huge fan of theirs and bet them to win every night
Your parents/family - Are they into gambling? If so - HOW MUCH SO? no not at all my parents go to Vegas 2 or 3 times a year but they're all slots
What can you offer someone that comes to your site? How will they gain? I have alot of basketball and baseball insight as a rockets and astros season ticket holder i get to know the team and their opponents extremely well
DO THEY NEED TO KNOW SPORTS to enjoy your site? no not at all look at my record i post it every night i win on a consistent basis, the thing is I never bet the winnings, I win then hit the ATM to withdraw my winnings its simple I never bet over $500 ever and let me tell you I've only lost the full $500 3 times
Do you wager on anything else ONLINE - if so - explain. (Investing too.. the ultimate gamble these days) investing is something i picked up on my own. If u read my blog i talk about how a cousin purchasing a Ferrari a few years back actually like 8 years back got me motivated to learn investing, from there i bought and read as many books as i could. again read dropoutinvestor.blogspot.com I have a very broad knowledge of money
Who taught you the most about what it is that you do on your site? (How did you get to be so skilled at picking winners) I watch sports day and night when I'm free, I watch all the shows, I read alot of different forums, especially lots of fan sites because fans are the ones who give you the real insight on their team.
Did you learn what you know from "doing it over the years" or READING about it? this and that, I read alot about stocks, but the sports betting you gotta keep up with that on your own.
What do PEOPLE IN THE KNOW call what it is you do? SPORTS WAGERING? SPORTS GAMBLING? What's the LINGO on the STREET? I like to call it sports investing....look at my site, my title is, its not gambling if you win and that's true because gambling is throwing money into a slot machine and praying you win, sports investing is making an educated guess..
Where do SPORTS people go to wager in the USA (live and ONLINE) How do they transfer funds? I go online, I like intertops they're the best because you can withdraw winnings with a Debit Card they offer you.
Is there BIG underground sports network in you home town? Not at all, well maybe I just don't know it yet.
Who is doing the most sports betting - MEN/LADIES? YOUNG ADULTS? KIDS (I hope not too many kids) I say mostly people older than me, most kids my age don't have a spare $500 a night to risk
If some one was to say - You're a degenerate gambler - wagering on SPORTS everyday.. What would you say to them? Hey, I made my money the hard way investing in real estate, some say i took advantage of the huge sell off after hurricane Katrina and I'm a degenerate in that sense, but if you want to get rich in this life you got to strike while the irons hot you know. Gambling makes watching the game fun for me, for some risking $5 makes it fun for to get into it its gotta be $100 at least, to each his own i guess.
What % of sports bettors are just into ACTION (clueless)??? What % knows their stuff? Anytime you put your money on something you're not doing it blindly at least i hope not. I'm sure most know.
Is there anyone out there THAT YOU KNOW - that LIVES off of sports wagering (not selling wagering) but with the wagers themselves? Ya actually the parking lot attendant in downtown who knows me gets tips from me and his monthly salary is around $1000 so I gave him $500 for Christmas because he's a good friend of mine, I told him to put it in intertops and I would help him make money to withdraw every night, he follows all my picks, he shouldve withdrawn over $200 this month or 20% of his normal salary.
Last few questions - My site is MORE about poker - So I'll finish with these questions -
Some call my WINNING & Regular players (my students) ADDICTED GAMBLERS because they play many hours of poker online - Yet..They are winners time and time again.. (This does not seem to matter much) Does this sort of thing happen in SPORTS betting and HOW do the PROFESSIONAL SPORTS BETTORS HANDLE SUCH STATEMENTS?
Also - What % of people making sports wagers are WINNERS - How many have a PROBLEM with needing action? Hey if you re making money go with it, but once it starts affecting your lifestyle ie your blowing the kids clothing fun and college money away, stop because at the end its just a game and it isn't worth hurting your loved ones.
Do a lot of sports bettors PLAY poker and if so, does being a gambler on sports give them ANY edge at the tables (in your eyes)? Nah not really online poker is tough its hard to bluff when nobody is in front of you. I used to do it, but I got tired of how hard it was to get my money from bodog so i quit it.
Does being a person who wagers on sports give them any advantage in LIFE? Yea because your immune to risk, with me when i want to buy a new property there's so much risk involved but I win and lose money all the time so I've got a strong heart for it you know, its make taking risks much easier because I do it day in day out. $500 on a game is the same to me as $300,000 on a property now it doesn't faze me.
There you have it? Pretty cool stuff. If you have any questions for Danny - visit him on his blog today. http://ipickthewinners.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)