It's a Jungle Out There Addendum

Your Not So Friendly Neighborhood Ghost

During my AM group dog walk, I was kvelling* over my post from yesterday. As I had to do when I kvelled over the post to my wife on a different dog walk, there was a certain amount of backstory needed in order to explain the post I was so proud (and in my wife’s unfortunate case, probably a lot more back story than she wanted). I realized I needed an addendum, not the version I gave my wife, but a little more context to help draw the point I made yesterday.

It’s a jungle out there I wrote. It’s a jungle when you think you are playing poker with friends, but it turns out one of your friends is the jungle, Dan “Jungleman” Cates. My point, if you made it through the story yesterday, was to think of doing your homework even in situations where you feel safe. That’s pretty clear. What I wanted to follow up on is the whole ghosting bit.

I wrote on Wednesday how Cates and his partner used a trick of the windows/PC operating system to game their system. Cates could play on the computer while the “businessman” could be in front of the camera and appear to be playing. What the poker players call ghosting. When we last talked, I explained how one could use ghosting to win because you lull you opponents into thinking you’re one kind of player and then when the time is right, you pull a play they were not expecting. The hustle. I trust that point was clear yesterday.

What I want to add is that it was not just the chance to be hustled that was at issue, or rather it was more than that. There are many “big games”, poker, where the professionals are excluded. It’s like trying to have a tennis match against Roger Federer—I confess that all the tennis players that first came to mind were like Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Conners. Federer would ace you each time, you could not even get a volley going. The businessmen gathered for the game, excuse the sexist language but I believe they were all men, wanted a game where they felt they had an equal shot. They could volley. As Bill Perkins explained in the podcast, he’s not against playing with sharks, he just wants to be aware when he is.

When I told the story this AM, my friend said something about how even rich executives are looking to make more money via cheating. What’s the cliche, “how do you think I got rich…” Still, I said it may not just be money. It could just be that one of the players liked the fact, or wanted the fact to be, that he got the best of his brethren, the trick was the point not the profit. This brings us back to your transaction due diligence. People often lie or try to alter a deal, not just because it gives them an economic advantage. They just want an advantage. They skipped the chapter in Seven Habits where it said seek win-win. There are, yes, people out there, who are not comfortable unless they win and you don’t. Even if it means ghosting their friends.

Does that help?

*To feel or express pride — The word is actually now in Merriam-Webster’s, but I prefer to link to Jewish-Language.org, because kvell is not just being proud, but that special pride that comes from your daughter making the Dean’s list (or ideally graduating from medical school).