No, but at least you hold the reigns. Failure is your own, not someone else's. Taking a bet on yourself is an honest gamble. Taking a bet on someone else is a huge unknown.
If you're gonna take a bet, you might as well hold all the cards.
I don't think it's betting against yourself. It's just allocating some funds to an alternative version of yourself that has had bad fortune. You can think of it probabilistically.
That is not a bet. Choosing the wrong tool and blaming one's failure on "chance", on "losing a bet", is a classic case of denial. A smarter thing to say is "I made a mistake", and learn from it rather than denying it.
Not necessarily. I might not want to bet on my own situation. At all. Ever. Because that might tip my hand as to what I know about what's going on. Many close-to-the-problem folks might then bet "zero." But just adjacent to it, folks closer to it than a random stranger, but not as tight-lipped, might make bets.
But that's better than a "lol this rocks" or "lol this sucks" bet by someone who has absolutely no knowledge of the situation — at all. That's either going to be a random bet or, more likely, a pre-biased placing of a bet.
Also, the link I provided above expired. Here's a better link; you can then download the PDF from there:
You're usually not allowed to bat on yourself for fairly obvious reasons.
On a related note, a friend who's a sports better always placed the biggest bets against his own teams. Partly because he trusts his judgement better when not clouded by the hope that his team will win, partly because if he looses the bet, hey, his favorite team just won the game against the odds!
I used to bet on sports. I've made 13k in 13 days. I've wagered 10k on a single game (numerous times). I've lost 14k in three hours. I've wagered my entire bankroll on a single day of NFL games.
And guess what? It was never about the money. Sure, I always wanted to see the number go up, but I had no intentions of withdrawing any of it. It was about being right. It was about pushing the envelope. And most importantly, it was about trying to figure something out.
I don't care if you make millions or go bust... or go back and forth between the two. As long as you leave your emotions at the door, you'll be fine. And to be honest, I was good at that (and still am). But it's probably not a life you want...
I mean, yeah, it's fun trying to solve something and seeing if you're right or wrong. But you're only doing it for yourself. You and no one else. And if that tickles your fancy, go for it - I have nothing against it. But what if you chose to share your passion for wanting to be right, for wanting to push the envelope, for wanting to figure something out...
In my eyes, it wouldn't necessarily make you a better person, it'd just be hard to call that bet a loss.
If you're gonna take a bet, you might as well hold all the cards.
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