Mindless Idleness

I generally don't read market-related blogs, so not to get influenced by somebody's opinion, but today I got a terrible back pain, had a hard time concentrating on my work and was looking for a brief distraction. One of my favorite writers is a very smart Molecool of EvilSpeculator.com - probably the best place in the interwebs for un-biased opinion on a markets, actionable trading setups and time-tested wisdom. Plus, he writes beautifully - so I always enjoy his style and try to learn something every time.
Lo and behold, the beginning of his post was all about yesterdays Super Bowl - the game that turned dramatically to the benefit of underdog. I don't watch sports in general and would never bet money on a game, but apparently there where million dollar bets on a favorite team to win... with expected results. Constant game fixing is well documented and many cases proven in court, so it bedazzles me why anybody would gamble on sports... but I digress.

What follows is copied from today's article (including a picture at top left) and comment section.
http://evilspeculator.com/advancing-positions/

Molecool begins:
"Okay, so let’s get this out of the way once and for all. I can totally understand if you don’t care that much about American Football and may just have better things to do than spend your weekends watching 22 guys in helmets and spandex have at each other. But if the annual Super Bowl doesn’t make your heart jump at least a little then you may as well just buy yourself a ticket to 1980 Soviet Russia and stay there."

That was followed by some gobbledygook about quarterback and his wife, but it was already enough to set me off:

i Bergamot • 6 hours ago

Proud to say, I have no clue about the beginning of this post. You are right - at least one of us (me) have better things to do than watching over-hyped drugs-laden millionaires play a child's game.
Specifically, I watched 1988 'Working Girl' with my daughter - a great movie about American Capitalism without snowflakes and pederasts. Personal growth and achievement, hard work and perseverance... and Melanie Griffith + Harrison Ford Having each other... and women that dress and look feminine... and hair...
BTW, I remember 1980 Olympics like it was yesterday. They actually gathered all the bums and dumped them beyond 100km zone around all big cities, locked up all the hoodlums they could find and cleaned up streets so well - people wished it was olympics every day.
and then I got to a 'trading' part of your post, which is a pure gold (as always)
whew...

And then to reinforce 'over-hyped millionaires' observation, I made a note about this Brady guy ("arguably the best QB of all time")

i Bergamot BobbyLow • 6 hours ago

Don't know enough about the guy to love or hate him, BUT
looking at a picture atop of this article, I see a cheat-sheet attached to his left arm. Guess it's hard to remember 6 non-random combinations of 11 non-variable inputs... lol
or may-be they don't pay him enough to do a home work

Although it was not my intention to troll, these comments produced a veritable shitstorm.

BobbyLow Mod i Bergamot • 6 hours ago

Gee, I'm sorry you're so bitter. Millions of people would disagree with you.
I look at it differently and think that people can use sports as a release from some of the everyday grind that's happening around them. The Super Bowl happens live only once a year. Reruns of the 1988 "Working Girl" can be seen anytime. But to each their own.

• i Bergamot BobbyLow • 6 hours ago
  o, no. not bitter at-all. may-be sarcastic...
  Learned to detect 'panem et circenses' from early age, I am used to NOT sharing passions and affections of majority (its actually quite liberating, but not socially acceptable anywhere).
  I agree with you about 'release', although there are better (and cheaper) ways to do it: reading, yoga, fishing... cuddling with daughter on a couch...
  jm2c
  • 
    
    

    BobbyLow Mod i Bergamot • 5 hours ago

    
    

    No problems. i B.
    Understood. :)

 Bobby, being an older and wiser guy, decided not to wrestle with a pig. (Hat Tip)
Enter Edd - an aspiring trader, who impressed me earlier with some clever questions and remarks.

Edd • 5 hours ago

Geez i Berg you sure seem like a great guy to hang around with. I think I`ll go over to Bobby`s house, drink a few beers, argue over why Johnny Unitas is still better then Brady, Trump is great, HRC sucked, I could ride a bike better than him when we were young, cuss each other out and walk away knowing we had a great time last night with each other. For petes sake, one game, once a year in a sport many of us played when we were younger. It is called fun, for just a brief moment , enjoyed with friends. The obnoxious pretentiousness, it`s a real frickin downer.

I feel sorry for these people. I used to be one of them. What this guy wrote bothered me so much that as soon as market closed I sit down to write him a love letter. (Bergamot has hopes)

i Bergamot Edd • 2 hours ago

Edd,
I am actually surprised that you don’t realize how your reply plays into my hands. I only write you this because, based on previous comments, you seemed like a person ‘on a way’.
So let me nudge you along a bit.

See, my remarks about professional sports are based on independent observations and sound logic, but it goes further than that. Modern society gives you every opportunity to be a spectator, for it’s much easier to watch than to do. Like I pointed out to Bobby, there are other ways to have fun, but they require you get off your butt and actually do something. Unfortunately, advertisement and cable subscriptions can not be sold to you while you are biking in a woods or practice MMA. They are actually pushing you into mindless idleness, making a cult out of sport, social media and other things, while stealing money out of your wallet and health out of your body.

If you try to sit down, close your eyes and think in silence and solitude about YOURSELF – your own needs and desires, your own happiness and rational self-interest – then little by little your life will change. You will start seeking knowledge instead of opinion, reason instead of feeling, independence instead of herd mentality. Your friends will change too. No longer will you agonize regarding people you don’t know in real life (Unitas vs Brady) or situations you have no control over (Trump vs HRC). Rather, you will gladly speak about yourselves – your achievements and interests- as well as your friends, for there will be a lot to share and it will be interesting. Your ‘circle’ will become much smaller, but instead of ‘arguing’ you will be discussing and sharing information; and instead of ‘cussing’ you will be laughing. You will not be afraid to be seen as pretentious because its real, for even if reality is obnoxious – it is the only truth out there.

It seems to me that you already started this process of change. I know how hard and painful it is. This is why my comment is such a ‘fricking downer’ for you. I see your cry for help: “Please, for heaven’s sake, let me just feel this for one time… just a brief moment… please, I want to enjoy… this…fun…”
SNAP OUT OF THIS! Your subconscious is screaming at you!
HELP YOURSELF! The only guy you need to care about is YOU!

YOU. Not afraid. Not confused. Confidently standing in a forward cabin of 100m/hr train, owning the road ahead of you.
Try it. You’ll love it!