What's that?

trans-national lottery 🤑

I sometimes play it, but only when it reaches a certain threshold 🙂

It’s the financial equivalent of Pascal’s wager 😅

I remember reading somewhere about a study which found filling the lottery tends to make you not try as hard in everything else in life, some psychological effect from imagining what you'd do with the winning then your brain already thinks you won and doesn't work hard for goals anymore Categorized as infohazard and stayed away from it since

How did they verify that thesis? Seems like vibes. I don’t play the lottery because I perceive it as a tax on dreams.

Putting me on the spot now? Let me see if I can find the study

I like the tax on dreams metaphor.

At least it's gentler than the "tax on poverty/stupidity" one Although one can flip it: not possibly winning the lottery is a tax on being a little too rational.

Anyway that study strikes me as spot on. The way I intend to play is fully automated. I just put money once in a while and only receive an email, that's all my "playing". I could go as far as creating a gmail filter that deletes mails saying "you didn't win". e.g. something I can forget about, but leave it on for 20 years, as long as the 5bucks/week don't bother me

it's easy to see what it costs you, but not what it gives you, which is a false sense of hope and achievement,, proportional to your sense of perception of the chance of winning My worry it could make the difference for someone when it comes to going the extra mile in some endeavor and making it big on their own merit. Be it finally striking out as an independent business owner or grinding out extra hours at work which would get them ahead and promoted, the very will to do that can be eroded by the siren song of a totally improbable win

Yes, I got that point. Although most engineers have some sort of ceiling. I doubt I can ever make 500k as a Clojure engineer based in Barcelona, for example. But my lifestyle is not bad at all, while an entrepeneurship lifestyle (one of our only rational ways to "make it") is definitely bad (as in, hard work, live more frugally, have zero certainty about success, etc).

You can move to the Bay Area and pay all of that in taxes 🙂

I’m ok with taxes, especially progressive taxes. Allocating that money to oppression and war is what I’m not ok with. But maybe that’s veering 😂

you're pretty much guaranteed that's what taxes will be used for (going off historical precedent)

I was thinking levy en masse and Carucage

https://www.bundesregierung.de/resource/image/1641386/16x9/1023/575/765106f269a7aea9723edcacdc3665a5/YK/2019-06-26-bundeshaushalt-grafik.png defence is a small %

just saying, it's not inevitable nor a fantasy

No one in Europe is paying for their own defense budget, energy is also subsidized partially by being America's "friends"

feel free to call me a cynic

Good luck @U45T93RA6, after you win, I hope you stay humble.

@UK0810AQ2 maybe we can just disagree :man-shrugging::skin-tone-3: