Have you found your passion?

I never enjoyed playing poker, the variance and the environment were always detrimental to my fulfilled happiness, and it's probably for that reason I hit my ceiling around MSNL. I enjoy the analytical side of problem solving/decision making inherent in poker, but you can find that in many other arenas. I've made a lot of money playing poker and I'm proud of what I've accomplished with it but I've never truly enjoyed being a professional poker player.

I find doing entrepreneurial startup work a lot more fulfilling because I enjoy creating something tangible. It's also like infinitely harder than being a pro poker player but the work can be fun especially if you work on a problem you're interested in or passionate about, and you surround yourself with equal minded, positive people (which is very unlike poker imo, where there's largely a culture of negativity in various forms). Now I focus more on web development which I really enjoy as well because I also find it's like poker in that there are different ways to come about finding the "best" way to solve a problem, although the subject matter in programming far outweighs that of poker.

Who knows, though, because the only career I've spent considerable time in has been poker and maybe other things will jade me too. My true passion likely has to involve music or painting, which sounds cliche, but I'm not good enough at music to make anything of it and painting is just a zen-ish hobby (and obviously financially unfulfilling as well). I find there has to be a balance between "doing what you love" and also doing something that will fulfill your financial needs at a reasonable level.

one of the best TED talks imo. I guess i'll chip in

Sadly i've been losing my passion for poker lately, ever since I started i've been playing on and off, making just enough money to live comfortably. Now i'm depressed, with little drive / motivation, no work experience and no clue what to do with my life. feels bad man :/

It feels like I lack purpose in life...not sure if everyone goes through this phase? maybe i'll do some overseas volunteering soon and try to work towards something bigger than me.

In spite of all this, i'm not really worried about my future - I rarely think about it. i'll just improvise as things come, it's funner that way. but for now, i'm gonna try to get back into poker..

Well my passion is MMA

As long as i am involved in the MMA scene either as a fighter or as a trainer i can never be unhappy.
After being sick for some time i currently work part time as Fitnestrainer in a Gym and as MMA trainer in our MMA Gym
I dont make much money but i enjoy what i do.

I think poker was never the right thing for me.
Despite trying hard at some points I made about 3-5K net winnings within 2 years (LOL T_T)
The Problem has always been that i cant deal well with only being able to have a very small amount of influence on your results within a limited amount of time.

Poker is quite the opposite of what i loved in all the other things i did back then.

I mean you play drums and fail to hit a Song correctly -> u practice for 5-10h and then u can play it smooth and nice
U play Quake3 and your aiming sucks ... u train 5-10h specifically aiming and then u will aim significantly better
You suck at an Escape in BJJ -> u train it 5-10h and then u will be able to perform the escape much much better
U cant get a BO down in Starcraft ? -> train it for a week in every ladder game and then u will make it smooth and nice

Poker was totally different ....
You have problems in certain spots over 50K hands and then make an adjustment of which u arent even sure that it works for the good
then u have to play another 50K hands to get an Idea if your adjustment might have been for the better a greater percentage of the time than for the worse ...

I just want to fuck around and entertain people.

On October 16 2012 05:56 k4ir0s wrote: one of the best TED talks imo. I guess i'll chip in Sadly i've been losing my passion for poker lately, ever since I started i've been playing on and off, making just enough money to live comfortably. Now i'm depressed, with little drive / motivation, no work experience and no clue what to do with my life. feels bad man :/ It feels like I lack purpose in life...not sure if everyone goes through this phase? maybe i'll do some overseas volunteering soon and try to work towards something bigger than me. In spite of all this, i'm not really worried about my future - I rarely think about it. i'll just improvise as things come, it's funner that way. but for now, i'm gonna try to get back into poker..

u pretty much just described my life brah, hang in there, we will rise again.



FKIN SHROOMS MAN

have been thinking so much about this type of stuff during the last couple of months and it seems like theres been alot of discussions all over the place about this lately.

for me it all started with a mushroomtrip that went to hell, to sum it up somewhat short i basically thought i was dead for 2 hours and it was sooo much anxiety trying to accept the fact that i was dead and now was trapped in some loop somewhere in my memory in the universe. but i also got to have time as the anxiety layed off alittlebit after an hour or so (time didnt excist but evaluating it afterwards i guess it was an hour or so of maximum panic and anxiety). and all i could think about was that i had so much more to give in life, i didnt wanna die yet but i kinda accepted it and calmed down and tryed to get ready to explore this wierd afterlife and i got thinking about stuff, like now that im dead, i can see the world and do what i want with no bounderys (i still was on this world)

when i got out of it i started crying like a little baby and my friends, wich i thought was just created in my mind as a defencemechanism to make me feel safer, started crying aswell as they had been tipping on their toes and was scared as fucked for the last 2 hours since i had been completely gone from this world for 2 hours just kinda sleepwalking and talking random nonsense and saying wierd stuff to them, and it got really gay as we cryed together 3 25 year old guys but i was so happy that i wasnt dead and that i was back to reality.

and then weeks have passed, ive been thinking alot about my lifestyle and what it is i want in life? is it really watching tvseries in my sofa while being high? i havent even smoked weed since then wich is pretty crazy for me, ive been going outside more, training alot alot alot and eating alot of healthy shit because im pretty sure liveing a somewhat healthy life is something that will make ur life better. what it is i wanna do in the future, and it probably isnt poker for all eternity thats for sure. and its probably not going through this standard careerladder either trying to reach the top, like the man speaks of in this tedtalks doing some stressed out shit just to get acouple of extra $ out of it. money wont make me happy in the end.

i still pretty much dont have a clue about what i wanna do after poker,
(gonna give it maybe a year or two more and see how it goes since ive already come so far in my development and knowledge/skill as a player, hopefully can make some money and give me some good backup for the future, since sadly enough money is kinda of an important tool in our society)

I know that i wanna travel more, and see more of the world, and be somewhat close to nature at times, because nature is the fucking shit. and i think i wanna work with people in the future because social connections is everything, like helping people, children or w/e something that will give me some type of purpose in alittle gay way

soooo my future is pretty open, and im glad ive atleast started the process of figureing this out in some kind of outside of the box way at the age of 24 and not 50, and im not really scared or worried about it. as i told a friend of mine, im fine with doing what ever i find interesting, like i could go to australia and breed donkeys, who cares. aslong as its something i wanna do. hopefully poker can help me out on the way by makeing me some money to give me a better ground to do maybe something that dosnt pay to much in the future, since i still kinda find poker interesting, astlest when im running well and are in the zone i think i will rise again and make some money out of this fucked up game.

but even if i wont, im pretty sure it will be ok, cuz money sux anyways



btw im crazy aswell joey

On October 16 2012 06:14 byrnesam wrote: I just want to fuck around and entertain people.

couple mates of mine (both successful poker nerds) recently did a 6 week course in standup comedy just for fun, culminating in a "new talent" gig for first time performers in a pub in central london. (was quite outside their comfort zones and they were super nervous imagining potential scenarios of failure and embarassment but both their performances were quite good and got some decent laughs but not relevant). ever thought thats something u could get into abit? ur basically The funnyman here anyway:D

oh and also, im busto if people thought i was rich already or something and ive been pretty much for the last months going through a really brutal pokeryear for me.

o.o You were posting 5/10 hands just a few weeks ago, what happened (if you don't mind me asking)?

As for on topic; I don't know. I've been struggling quite a bit lately after realizing I didn't have any passion left as a progamer (which was a dream I clinged to for a really long time when I was younger, largely because I didn't have any idea what else I wanted to do with life I think), and I have motivational issues in general right now despite actually enjoying playing/learning poker and very much could see myself playing 10 years or 20 years from now (though I wouldn't say it's my passion).

On October 16 2012 08:09 TianYuan wrote: o.o You were posting 5/10 hands just a few weeks ago, what happened (if you don't mind me asking)?

ive been staked by the supercool OP ket the shet

For the guys in jobs, tell us what you're doing, why, what you hope to get out of it and what the plan for after is.

I'm currently a technology specialist at a large us bank. I'm working there because it's a great place to have a career as well as the benefits are pretty sweet. 6% full matching to a 401k as well as annual profit share. I've gotten 3 promotions within 2.5 years, I contribute that directly to wanting to be the best at everyone of my positions (I first strive to learn everything, then be the best on the team, then be the best in the area. I hope to working here a career as well as get my own business up off the ground (basically geeksquad at 75% cost)

For the guys in jobs, tell us what you're doing, why, what you hope to get out of it and what the plan for after is.


I work for Spotify as an Analyst (it's essentially Revenue forecasting, so a good mix of numbers and people) , I absolutely love working here, because it's a super cool company with really smart people. What do get out of it? Well, working for a start up in always fun, the entrepreneurial environment has it's benefits. Not sure what the plan is, but I'm enjoying my job so hopefully i'll be here for quite some time.

On October 16 2012 05:56 k4ir0s wrote: one of the best TED talks imo. I guess i'll chip in Sadly i've been losing my passion for poker lately, ever since I started i've been playing on and off, making just enough money to live comfortably. Now i'm depressed, with little drive / motivation, no work experience and no clue what to do with my life. feels bad man :/ It feels like I lack purpose in life...not sure if everyone goes through this phase? maybe i'll do some overseas volunteering soon and try to work towards something bigger than me. In spite of all this, i'm not really worried about my future - I rarely think about it. i'll just improvise as things come, it's funner that way. but for now, i'm gonna try to get back into poker..

like longple, this describes me too.
unlike longple, I'm not actually good at poker, nor do I actually work hard at being good at poker.

On October 16 2012 09:07 iop wrote: For the guys in jobs, tell us what you're doing, why, what you hope to get out of it and what the plan for after is. I work for Spotify as an Analyst, I absolutely love working here, because it's a super cool company with really smart people. What do get out of it? Well, working for a start up in always fun, the entrepreneurial environment has it's benefits. Not sure what the plan is, but I'm enjoying my job so hopefully i'll be here for quite some time.

nice, and what does an analyst at spotify do? from what background do u land that role? enjoying what ur doing for its own sake and not for the extrinsic benefits is so huge imo

longple/gawdawful/FA, i think the most valuable thing you may find useful from that video i posted was the bit about how you should go out in the world and try loads of diff things and in doing so maybe discover something u love that you really want to invest your time and effort doing? I can relate to both your guys' situations and def know the feeling of lack of direction, so I can only guess this is what we should be doing. Come back and share ur experiences once things progress

On October 16 2012 05:59 PplusAD wrote: Well my passion is MMA As long as i am involved in the MMA scene either as a fighter or as a trainer i can never be unhappy. After being sick for some time i currently work part time as Fitnestrainer in a Gym and as MMA trainer in our MMA Gym I dont make much money but i enjoy what i do. I think poker was never the right thing for me. Despite trying hard at some points I made about 3-5K net winnings within 2 years (LOL T_T) The Problem has always been that i cant deal well with only being able to have a very small amount of influence on your results within a limited amount of time. Poker is quite the opposite of what i loved in all the other things i did back then. I mean you play drums and fail to hit a Song correctly -> u practice for 5-10h and then u can play it smooth and nice U play Quake3 and your aiming sucks ... u train 5-10h specifically aiming and then u will aim significantly better You suck at an Escape in BJJ -> u train it 5-10h and then u will be able to perform the escape much much better U cant get a BO down in Starcraft ? -> train it for a week in every ladder game and then u will make it smooth and nice Poker was totally different .... You have problems in certain spots over 50K hands and then make an adjustment of which u arent even sure that it works for the good then u have to play another 50K hands to get an Idea if your adjustment might have been for the better a greater percentage of the time than for the worse ...

Sounds like some life winning going on, hope it takes u places (but even if it doesn't, it's not like you've lost out if youre already enjoying the present of what youre doing)

On October 16 2012 08:31 Svenman87 wrote: For the guys in jobs, tell us what you're doing, why, what you hope to get out of it and what the plan for after is. I'm currently a technology specialist at a large us bank. I'm working there because it's a great place to have a career as well as the benefits are pretty sweet. 6% full matching to a 401k as well as annual profit share. I've gotten 3 promotions within 2.5 years, I contribute that directly to wanting to be the best at everyone of my positions (I first strive to learn everything, then be the best on the team, then be the best in the area. I hope to working here a career as well as get my own business up off the ground (basically geeksquad at 75% cost)

Can't really fault this, sounds like some corporate crushing is going on atm. If I had to ask a question, do you think you'll be alright if the promotions at some point cease and youre stuck in the same position, or in some way you're no longer matching/exceeding expectations for what external benefits you hope to get out of doing what you're doing? By the sound of it my read is you're pretty money/"success" motivated (nothing wrong w/ that incase u confuse this for criticism which it's def not) and are loving the rush of earning, investing wisely to secure your future and moving up the ladder. Basically, ignoring those nice things, do you find what youre actually doing good fun for its own sake? Just want to know.

My passion is game design.

On October 16 2012 10:03 Arirang wrote: My passion is killing scrubs with stormspirit.

fyp

btw no thoughts on my youtube link?

Larry was my macroecon teacher. Dynamic teacher who teaches for fun and to network with students. He's def enjoying his life.

Ie he told the story of how he bought a BMW on a credit card by always asking to boost his limit. That was one of his goals in life.