Knowledge vs. Blissful Unawareness
I recently came across an interesting dilemna. If you could have unlimited access to all poker knowledge but have no guarantee of poker success, or be blissfully unaware of all your faults and mistakes, but be guaranteed a modest gain in your poker endeavors, which would you choose?
Some choose to be blissfully unaware in poker and in life. They bury their head in the sand because they can’t really comprehend the intricate details and subtle nuances that make up the world. It’s easier to blame it on somebody else or bad luck and then move on to the next hand that life deals you - remaining blissfully unaware of what the experience could truly teach. In the corners of their mind, they have an uneasy feeling that there is simply more that they could obtain and more knowledge they could gain, but to try to do so is too difficult and they are not up to the challenge. On occasion, they may try to aspire to greater heights, but inevitably, they fall back into their old routine because to do otherwise is too much of a pain. Why try for greater heights when being the biggest fish in a small pond is so easily obtainable? Why try to learn when blissful unawareness is so easy?
Me, I’d take the other route. Just like life, poker isn’t about guarantees. They are adventures. If you take them too seriously, you’ll simply give yourself a migraine (and then revert to blissful unawareness). Give me the chance to gain the knowledge I need to improve. Give me the challenges that make me better. Maybe I’ll fail, but at least I’ll have aspired to obtain greater things. Where’s the honor in not trying? Who knows, maybe I’ll succeed. Either way, the adventure is the true reward.
Life and poker are strange things. My wife’s favorite movie says it best: Beginnings are scary; endings are sad; but it’s what you do in the middle that truly matters. Me, I’m not into blissful unawareness. How will I know where I stand? How will I know what I can truly do? Give me the access to greater knowledge and I’l take it from there.
Until next time,
KC
I suppose my answer is it depends. I think I’d answer differently based on starting several factors, in particular starting situation.
Starting wealth is a factor in the answer - If im starving on the street I’ll take the stability of ignorance while If I’m born a Rockefeller I’ll take the knowledge, wealth is a non-issue so the opportunity to exploit the advantage all knowledge brings,
Also a factor would be my awareness of my ability to use knowledge, if I was Forrest Gump I’d give a pass to knowledge that would be processed so ineffectively.
To cut to the chase like almost most everything else in poker I suppose my answer is, it depends.
P.S.
Looks like your site homepage template is still off, at least on FireFox. My guess would be a broken div tag.
Thanks for the heads-up on the FireFox problem. It must be recent because I just started hearing about it yesterday. I’m not real good with the coding. So, this may take me a bit to fix.