The Well: N 82 50 24 (10.03.07)

[hoyasnaxa]

Yea you have always seemed really cool, good luck with everything.

[iMsoLucky0]

You seem to instantly become a friend of anyone you are around. Did you put in effort to learn how to do this, or is it just your personality? How big a part of your success do you think these interpersonal skills are?

What was your weight when you started losing, how much do you weigh now? Do you use a personal trainer? How did you motivate yourself to start?

[jtown1010]

Why is it that whenever I try to google pscrew.com it says I'm trying to access a document for which I don't have privaleges?

Also I'm very much looking forward to meeting you at the 2+2 ATL meet up, do you like ranch or blue cheese on your chicken wings?

[N 82 50 24]

Thanks guys.

Alright, I have some time to write up a few thoughts now on the sale.

So, here's the thing. We didn't actually get *that* much from BLUFF. Especially considering what a site with our level of traffic and users would/should get. But the reason we sold is what I might call "the friction of IT." Here's what I mean:

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"Everything in war is very simple," Clausewitz notes, "but the simplest thing is difficult." (119) "In war more than anywhere else things do not turn out as we expect. Nearby they do not appear as they did from a distance." (193) Moreover, "...every fault and exaggeration of [a] theory is instantly exposed in war."

Clausewitz terms "friction" the "only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper." (119) Friction is caused mainly by the danger of war, by war's demanding physical efforts, and by the presence of unclear information or the fog of war.

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Source: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/...z/clwt000b.htm

It's a concept that I learned back in college. The Friction of War. And it's very relevant to IT. People say, oh, make this page do that, make this program do this and move to such and such server. The problem is -- it's actually incredibly hard to *do* these things.

Here's the reason: good IT help is hard to find. And when you do find it, it's expensive. Just look at CardRunners. They have a ton of money. They've been working on this new website for months. The spent a lot of money on it. And the first few days were a mess and they're probably still sorting out a lot of problems. Or even Full Tilt Poker. They have millions of dollars and their servers still crash. IT is just a messy business. And I was faced with a friction problem.

I had tons of ideas. I had a bunch of money to try to get them implemented and run the whole thing on my own. But... I didn't really have good options. I could outsource to India via online sites. I could find someone in Atlanta and pay them a ton with no real guarantees. Or I could go with BLUFF w/ their development team and hope for the best. They had a number of people who could write and support the code needed for the site and they were all poker players who'd used the db before, so they understood what we were going for.

I decided to go with BLUFF, primarily, because of the above reasons. It's very hard to get things done reliably in IT and I didn't want to risk a ton of upfront money to take a shot at some pros in the Atlanta area. I felt like I was giving up a little value in the BLUFF deal, but I was reducing variance by a ton. So that's why I took a deal with BLUFF.

[N 82 50 24]

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You seem to instantly become a friend of anyone you are around. Did you put in effort to learn how to do this, or is it just your personality? How big a part of your success do you think these interpersonal skills are?

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Hrmm, I'm really flattered by that. I didn't think I did that, but if I do, then that's great. I definitely didn't put in any effort into anything like this, but I like meeting new people and talking to them. But in terms of interpersonal skills, I think they're extremely important in business. Being a dick to people isn't a good idea for tons of obvious reasons. And it always helps to have tons of connections to fall back on when you need advice or a favor.

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What was your weight when you started losing, how much do you weigh now? Do you use a personal trainer? How did you motivate yourself to start?

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I weighed 255 lbs at the PCA this past January. Now I float in between 200 and 205. I didn't use a personal trainer, I just went to the gym and drastically changed my diet. And I motivated myself by making a huge bet with two old friends who didn't think I would do it (I lost a similar but smaller bet in 2006). I had to lose 40 lbs in 5 months or so and I was bought out of the bet after I lost 32 in 2 months. But once I started losing weight, it was easy, it just kept coming off. Going from 255 to 240 was much harder than 240 to 200 for me, mainly because losing weight and feeling better is the best motivation.

[N 82 50 24]

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Why is it that whenever I try to google pscrew.com it says I'm trying to access a document for which I don't have privaleges?

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Oh, because I have it on an old server and it isn't pointing to a real directory. I guess I could put up a picture of stealthmunk or something at the domain, but I don't want to run a forum again.

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Also I'm very much looking forward to meeting you at the 2+2 ATL meet up, do you like ranch or blue cheese on your chicken wings?

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Yea, I'm excited to go too. But I don't eat chicken wings b/c I don't like buffalo sauce. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[stealthmunk]

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Why is it that whenever I try to google pscrew.com it says I'm trying to access a document for which I don't have privaleges?

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Oh, because I have it on an old server and it isn't pointing to a real directory. I guess I could put up a picture of stealthmunk or something at the domain, but I don't want to run a forum again.

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Also I'm very much looking forward to meeting you at the 2+2 ATL meet up, do you like ranch or blue cheese on your chicken wings?

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Yea, I'm excited to go too. But I don't eat chicken wings b/c I don't like buffalo sauce. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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just make the domain the gambler2k4 hand.

[N 82 50 24]

that's a good idea

[N 82 50 24]

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that's a good idea

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http://www.pscrew.com/

[rothko]

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that's a good idea

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http://www.pscrew.com/

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lol, awesome.