It's all well and good to emote on what "happiness" may or may not be (and all, surely, just my opinion, you understand), but deep down we all know (whether we've ever heard of Maslow or not) that our most basic of needs have to be met before feelings of pleasure or satisfaction and contentment (i.e., "happiness") mean a whit.
Sadly, there's just not a lot of happiness going on in the poker industry these days. No wonder everyone's yelling and blogging serious, finger pointing posts, and hard hitting (ahem) vlogs! Indeed, it's hard out here for a playa, to paraphrase that old chestnut of an Oscar winning tune.
Martin over at Hard-Boiled Poker has a nice write up about the "epic fail." I'm looking forward to his thoughts on what he was initially going to tackle - a Village Voice article that discusses how Black Friday decimated livelihoods and a multi-billion dollar industry. Man, aren't we feeling those effects today...I hate it.
I'm now two weeks or so into my "no social media" fast and I can tell you I've learned some things during this time. I plan on sharing some of that with you at a later date, but suffice it to say that the "giving up" of anything generally just means you just fill it with something else. For me, that's meant I'm just doing a lot more reading. Of blogs and real books and e-books and even the back of cereal boxes, tbh.
One blog that I really enjoy is Brain Pickings. Spending some time there this week is what prompted yesterday's ill-timed happiness post (although I don't believe "happiness" can ever really be ill-timed, it can certainly be not-so-well-met, and given the news of Epic's bankruptcy, well...you know what I mean).
I point you to the site (that I ultimately just bookmarked) because they've always got stuff that makes me think. Today's post, in particular, has a nice listing of books that I'm putting on my "To-Read!" list (scroll down, under the third poster, the recommendations begin).
On Tuesday, I posted a link to a Seth Godin manifesto about education. In it, Godin highlights his belief that in today's uber connected world, reading and writing are the two skills most likely to "pay off with exponential results."
Now, I'm not sure exactly what he means by that, but I do get that
...reading is the way we open doors. If our economy and our culture grows based on the exchange of ideas and on the interactions of the informed, it fails when we stop reading.Right now, I'm in the middle of a few books (ADD much?), but two are keeping my interest. One is Lisa Bloom's "Think" and the other is Gary Vaynerchuk's "Crush It." And, of course, I continually read and re-read Tendler's "Mental Game of Poker" (online poker is coming back, people. Someday...).
At any rate - there are some good works on the Brain Pickings site and I figured I'd shine a light on the listing in case anyone else might enjoy a good read during these dark days of poker in which we find ourselves.
What about you? What are you reading? Why are you reading it/liking it?
I'm always looking for good reads (and a good old-fashioned trash/beach novel is always welcome, too!) so share 'em with me! Please? For reals...this is how I'm filling my off social media time, so...help a sista out!
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I read a very good novel recently, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.
ReplyDeleteExcellent as always. (I do miss your tweets btw). Currently reading The Best of American Noir on my Kindle, and Steven Kings 11/22/63.
ReplyDeleteJust read Poke The Box by Seth Godin. Its a great read and its very motivating. I just started to read Shut Up and Deal, a novel by Jesse May and I'm half way though the Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler and Barry Carter.
ReplyDeleteLaoch - thanks for the recommendation. I will put this on my list. I am about to start The Madonnas of Leningrad, which my aunt said was a really good read.
ReplyDeleteLSG - I have 11/22/63 on my night stand right now! How is it? Have you read The Stand? That's one of my favorites.
Mike - I downloaded Godin's Tribes and may start Poke the Box after that. Tendler's book is good, isn't it? I didn't know May had a written a book, but I really like his writing, so I will put that on the list, too.
Thanks for the recommendations, guys!
11/22/63 is excellent. The Stand was one of my favorite King novels as well and this one stands up well to that.
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