Absolutely Disgusting - Wurst To First

The music loving, but apparently rather closed-minded TechnoViking100000 commented on an older post, writing about the statement I made - "As I have written before, P and L figures are of no interest to anyone but yourself" - saying:

Enjoy the blog, but got to disagree with this. I'm always interested to hear what others are making especially if they are fellow pros. Hearing how others are doing adds motivation to improve in ones own betting. Also have other people, both people in the game and regular Joes ask how much I make.

What I meant to say was that blogs stating only the profits or losses are not very interesting, it's the context that makes the outcome interesting. Reporting that Football was +£2.34 on the week tells readers nothing. It could be that he had one winning bet or had a hundred bets with thousands staked, ending up with a meagre profit.

Then there's the issue of trusting the numbers, although I really don't think too many people can keep telling porkies for too long. Losers rapidly lose interest in telling the world that they are, literally, losers and winners find it easy to add a little context and keep the updates coming. Admittedly, some choose to adjust the numbers and exclude bets with unfavourable outcomes, which is up to them I guess, but hardly makes the numbers meaningful to anyone at all.

There's also the issue of what does the win or loss mean to the writer. We're not all the same in wealth, age, stage in life or responsibilities. Reading about a win of say £500 and half the readers are wetting their pants, the other half are wondering how many hours of time did that win take and was it worth it. What was the opportunity cost? £500 after 100 hours of intense trading is quite different to £500 made on a punt while you were outside, smelling the roses. All pros are not created equal either. Some have huge banks to play with, others are living on state handouts incapable of being gainfully employed, and 'pro' by default.

That (opportunity cost) is probably the biggest reason why I think profit and losses are only of interest to the individual. If you think about comparing salaries, it is far more interesting to compare yours with those of your colleagues than it is with someone in a completely different line of work. You likely have similar qualifications, put in approximately the same amount of hours as your colleague, and perform a similar job, so any differences are extremely interesting (and probably extremely irritating to someone).

It might add motivation to know what your boss is earning, but I don't see how it is motivating to know what your brother's friend with a different IQ, different qualifications, different job, working more or less hours than you makes.

I'm not a rocket surgeon, so whatever they earn is meaningless to me. I'm also not unemployed, so what they get in handouts is also meaningless to me.

I'm not sure what kind of company TechnoViking keeps, although I can guess based on his Eurovision comments above, but in my circles it's considered extremely poor taste to ask people how much they make - "absolutely disgusting" in fact.

I'm also not sure what Techno's rather unhealthy obsession is with people who are different from him, but it's disappointing to see that such sentiments still persist. Live and let live.

Right, time to listen to a Eurovision winner who like to dress up - the great music is just a bonus.