One doesn't need to be locked up to be imprisoned. There is a generation walking around with invisible bars.
They know the life exists, the house, the stability, the reward for showing up and doing the right thing for thirty years. They know people have it. They just can't imagine how to get there. Not "it's hard"; they literally cannot construct a realistic path from where they are to where they're supposed to end up.
I’ve always been fascinated by the antigambling crowd. We all wake up and take hundreds of gambles a day, and not just the big ones. What to eat. Whether to skip the workout. Whether to open that email now or later. Whether to speak up or stay quiet. Whether to save, spend, or wait one more year. Even doing nothing is a bet that the world won’t change without you.
Risk isn’t some special activity people opt into it’s actually the default state. What’s changed is that the old, socially approved gambles stopped paying in a way people actually believe in. “Work hard, be patient, stay the course” used to feel like a reasonable bet. So when people move toward obvious, high-variance bets, it’s not because they suddenly love risk. It’s because like you mention they want agency, to choose their gamble instead of having one quietly imposed on them.
Telling people to “stop gambling” misses that completely. They’re already gambling. They’re just reallocating where. If that behavior is structural and not going away, the real asymmetry isn’t trying to beat the house. It’s owning the parts of the system that profit from activity itself. I wrote a related piece on that idea, basically own the casino rather than play in it, for anyone curious:
It's utterly insane that you were able to put this in words. This is the truth, it's the ugly that very few want to talk about and even fewer can even identify as a legitimate predicament (outsiders are oblivious)
I have to draw many similarities from degenning and the "golden handcuffs" of commission sales jobs, particularly door to door.
I hope that participants understand that the most important part of "finally winning" or hitting the play that "changes everything" is knowing when to leave the casino.
Great read. I'd be really great to get your take on historical precedents / parallels on this. I'm sure there's a lot to learn from history on this topic, especially when it comes to inequality (throughout ups and downs).
I’ve always been fascinated by the antigambling crowd. We all wake up and take hundreds of gambles a day, and not just the big ones. What to eat. Whether to skip the workout. Whether to open that email now or later. Whether to speak up or stay quiet. Whether to save, spend, or wait one more year. Even doing nothing is a bet that the world won’t change without you.
Risk isn’t some special activity people opt into it’s actually the default state. What’s changed is that the old, socially approved gambles stopped paying in a way people actually believe in. “Work hard, be patient, stay the course” used to feel like a reasonable bet. So when people move toward obvious, high-variance bets, it’s not because they suddenly love risk. It’s because like you mention they want agency, to choose their gamble instead of having one quietly imposed on them.
Telling people to “stop gambling” misses that completely. They’re already gambling. They’re just reallocating where. If that behavior is structural and not going away, the real asymmetry isn’t trying to beat the house. It’s owning the parts of the system that profit from activity itself. I wrote a related piece on that idea, basically own the casino rather than play in it, for anyone curious:
https://www.ridireresearch.com/p/own-the-casino
It's utterly insane that you were able to put this in words. This is the truth, it's the ugly that very few want to talk about and even fewer can even identify as a legitimate predicament (outsiders are oblivious)
I have to draw many similarities from degenning and the "golden handcuffs" of commission sales jobs, particularly door to door.
I hope that participants understand that the most important part of "finally winning" or hitting the play that "changes everything" is knowing when to leave the casino.
Too hip.
I really enjoyed this read and love the way you write. Any book recommendations?
Great read. I'd be really great to get your take on historical precedents / parallels on this. I'm sure there's a lot to learn from history on this topic, especially when it comes to inequality (throughout ups and downs).
Thank you for this great post 🙏