War on Work

I'm struggling with wrist and arm and shoulder pains. Clearly my desk needs some adjustment, but I have only four weeks til I move to Canada so I guess I will just soldier on. Clearly, too, I spent far less of my working day at the office actually using my mouse than I do now. I suppose there were cigarette breaks, lunch, aimless wandering around the building, and talking to my colleagues, all of which got me away from the RSI-zone.

One thing I spent far more of my time at the office doing, was reading poker blogs. Nowadays I read only a select handful, and things are pretty dry with Iggy and Nerd away. I did used to enjoy a large number of blogs, but now that I am actually engaged, interested and motivated by my work there just aren't enough hours in the day. Or minutes in the hour, whatever.

Talking of work: Camel linked an interview with Jeffrey Bernard the other day, which was taken from the Idler website. Well, yesterday I purchased a recent edition of 'The Idler' which was subtitled their 'War on Work' special. A noble publication, I must say, with some excellent things to say about the work ethic. Some interesting stats too, showing how work kills far more people every year than warfare or than alcohol and other drugs combined, how increased hours are counter-productive and how work isn't even a very successful cure for poverty.

My own cure for poverty has improved since the last entry. I took stock of my game, and realised that for some time I had been playing in a completely different way to that which has succeeded for me over several years of poker. For some reason, playing more hours had somehow seen me become less patient than before and had me throwing chips around with a reckless abandon for which I don't possess the skills or swing-handling temperament.

Since then, I have returned to my tighter ways and been reminded of the truth that most of one's winnings come from other people's mistakes. So, I am focussing on reducing my mistakes rather than trying to make super-clever 'moves' with razor-thin edges, and it seems to be working.

I've also found a daily PLO tournament, only a little over fifty runners but good fun. I've had 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 8th, 10th in the last three weeks, not playing every day, and it has proved a surprisingly profitable enterprise when I do it just for a change of pace and some relaxation.