Why poker players are better people

We are very hanged up on being equal and all that. It seems that society at one point or another decided that we are good, valuable and important members of the community. I mean that's why each vote has the same weight, why we give all kind of participation trophy and why...well, why all idiots seem to think that just because they say something, must be true and important. I dunno, I'm just wondering in writing, really.

As many intelligent and concerned individuals I'm looking at the state of the world everywhere and wonder how did we get here? Why are all these people voting against their own best interests and believe outrageous things despite the fact that there is no evidence to believe something, even the opposite in most cases. Then I go to the gym...

The gym is quite a cool environment to study the human nature and habits because it's very contained. A lot of what people do in the gym is gym-related only so it has no importance what that person does outside the gym: rich, poor, smart, educated, old, whatever. We are all, in the gym, equal. It's really a very democratic environment if you think about it.
So I see a lot of people and what they do and how they adapt and react to the results. That's another thing cool about the gym; results matter and speak for themselves. Whatever you do, if it works, someone will give you respect for it.

So, you'd think, that people are constantly looking for better ways to get the results, discarding and adapting their methods constantly when faced with..well, lack of results. If you'd think so, then you'd be wrong and you did not take in account that people are irational beings. We just are. What I do see is this; people that look always the same, moving the same weights year after year. People that do exercises wrong and if corrected usually go back to their ways quickly. Resistance to critique and a weird belief in their methodology is very strong in most of the gym population.

But that's the weird thing, it shouldn't be! These should be people unattached to the methods but attached to the results with usually leads to a rational, healthy approach to things. But that's not the case at all. My theory being that results are relative in tihs case. Like take Joe BodybuilderJr. This guy goes to the gym, moves a weak, pathetic really, bench press of say 150lbs but feels like a superhero afterwards. Sure, no one would think Joe lifts seriously [ he sure thinks that!] and no one would say that he looks "good" [ he sure loves his love handles! ]. But he feels like he's looking pretty good, he has a girlfriend/wife and can - with a bit effort, we all can - believe that other people admire him from a distance. Joe is happy despite his lack of progress gym-wise. More than that, Joe thinks he is hotshit.

Which finally bring me back to the PokerPlayers. Pokerplayers are a lot like gym goes in that they are primarily following results, in their case: making money. That's the purpose of the PokerPlayer. He goes at it like a gymgoes, testing, re-testing, adapting and always improving. The main difference is this though: if you are a bad pokerplayer, you lose money.
Man, people hate losing. We hate losing more than anything else. The prospect of losing scares us more than any prospect of winning. It's just how it is. So poker forces you to improve and accept evidence, despite your brain stubbornly rejecting evidence. It's kind of like a battle in your brain:
a. I lose money, i hate it, i need to do something to win money, i think i need to change stuff
b. It's not my fault! I'm unlucky!! I'm smart and better than most!

A is accepting that you might be wrong and do something about it.
B is ego-riding.

B wins a lot as seen by the gym example. Sure. But in poker Bs don't make for pokerplayer because they run out of money at some point. They only PokerPlayers are A-type. It's natural selection at its finest.

So when this PokerPlayer guy who trained his brain to always pick A, chose evidence, act on it and repsect it is faced with the shitstorm that is our world, it won't just jump to believe anything that somehow sounds good to his mind, he'll wonder:
" hmm, is that it? What is the evidence?Let's do a little research? Who's benefiting from me believe this info? ? ? ? "

He's gonna act smarter, vote smarter and generally be smarter. He's just a better person than most.
Of course, in this category we have a lot of other people: scientists, doctors,etc etc. And of course we have some bad apples in the bunch. But by and large, these guys deserve more credit.

I urge you to act like pokerplayer in your life and act like being stupid will cost you money. Because it will.