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Wow, I've not read Liars Poker but I'm a little surprised by the comments. I thought the author of this article really had some intense and interesting points a

by citrik 17y ago

Wow, I've not read Liars Poker but I'm a little surprised by the comments. I thought the author of this article really had some intense and interesting points about the humanity of it all. Eating outrageously wasteful meals then putting into motion the loss of jobs the next day. I think it's an interesting if not sad window into a strange world.

potatolicious 17y ago
Agreed - I never knew about the physical effect of the financial industry on people. Yeah, okay, it was pretty obvious that they were drinking thousand-dollar bottles of wine and ordering steaks that rival my daily (or weekly?) salary... but I never knew about the rampant waste. It's pretty disgusting to say the least. You can see this from day one, really. Freshman year in college, while the engineering, arts, and science majors were running around soccer fields doing team-building activities... the commerce majors were getting drunk aboard a lavish yacht on loan from an alum. Go figure, I suppose this starts pretty early. A close friend of mine was a commerce major... he transferred out after a year to pursue math - he couldn't take the ridiculous egos (and he's a cocky bastard to boot) and the "eye on the money, fuck the plebes, we're better" mentality that his peers seemed to have. I was pursued by Morgan Stanley and Barclay's for a while for a college internship - I decided to go elsewhere, but even for technical roles, and even before I was offered a job, they were boozing us up and booking expensive restaurants and clubs in town. Glad I stayed out and did a meaningful job instead.
- byrneseyeview 17y ago
  Where did you go to school? At most places, business majors are people who would be economics majors if they scored half a standard deviation higher on standardized tests.
  - potatolicious 17y ago
    The school in question is UBC up in Canada - I didn't personally go there, but being where I grew up, I heard plenty of "yeaaaaah free boooooze!" from my peers who went into commerce, and "screw the preppy commerce guys" from everyone else. I got the impression there that "commerce" was the end-all-be-all, and that econ majors are the people who actually study this business thing (as opposed to be awesome, network, and be awesomer, and get drunk).
    - byrneseyeview 17y ago
      I don't know. Just looking at average salaries, it seems that the econ guys can either afford to drink more, or afford to drink better. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah enough booze to reach the point of negative marginal utility! And from the resumes I've seen, a business degree will leave open some pretty uninspiring opportunities. Usually low-end stuff -- assistants with titles other than 'assistant'. Perhaps in Canada, it's different.
biohacker42 17y ago
Read Liars Poker. Seriously, if you liked this you'll love Liars Poker.
dkarl 17y ago
The factory closing bullshit was incredibly insincere. Oh, yeah, it seemed to make sense when it was just abstract ideas in his economics cram classes, but when he saw it as a seven-word news ticker blurb connected to a real, live, concrete stock symbol, it was suddenly a great punch in the gut! The humanity! Really, how naive are we supposed to believe he was? He was a Wall Street trader but hadn't thought capitalism all the way through to the fact that gasp! factories get closed?

by citrik 17y ago

potatolicious 17y ago

Agreed - I never knew about the physical effect of the financial industry on people. Yeah, okay, it was pretty obvious that they were drinking thousand-dollar bottles of wine and ordering steaks that rival my daily (or weekly?) salary... but I never knew about the rampant waste. It's pretty disgusting to say the least. You can see this from day one, really. Freshman year in college, while the engineering, arts, and science majors were running around soccer fields doing team-building activities... the commerce majors were getting drunk aboard a lavish yacht on loan from an alum. Go figure, I suppose this starts pretty early. A close friend of mine was a commerce major... he transferred out after a year to pursue math - he couldn't take the ridiculous egos (and he's a cocky bastard to boot) and the "eye on the money, fuck the plebes, we're better" mentality that his peers seemed to have. I was pursued by Morgan Stanley and Barclay's for a while for a college internship - I decided to go elsewhere, but even for technical roles, and even before I was offered a job, they were boozing us up and booking expensive restaurants and clubs in town. Glad I stayed out and did a meaningful job instead.

byrneseyeview 17y ago
Where did you go to school? At most places, business majors are people who would be economics majors if they scored half a standard deviation higher on standardized tests.
- potatolicious 17y ago
  The school in question is UBC up in Canada - I didn't personally go there, but being where I grew up, I heard plenty of "yeaaaaah free boooooze!" from my peers who went into commerce, and "screw the preppy commerce guys" from everyone else. I got the impression there that "commerce" was the end-all-be-all, and that econ majors are the people who actually study this business thing (as opposed to be awesome, network, and be awesomer, and get drunk).
  - byrneseyeview 17y ago
    I don't know. Just looking at average salaries, it seems that the econ guys can either afford to drink more, or afford to drink better. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah enough booze to reach the point of negative marginal utility! And from the resumes I've seen, a business degree will leave open some pretty uninspiring opportunities. Usually low-end stuff -- assistants with titles other than 'assistant'. Perhaps in Canada, it's different.

biohacker42 17y ago

Read Liars Poker. Seriously, if you liked this you'll love Liars Poker.

dkarl 17y ago

The factory closing bullshit was incredibly insincere. Oh, yeah, it seemed to make sense when it was just abstract ideas in his economics cram classes, but when he saw it as a seven-word news ticker blurb connected to a real, live, concrete stock symbol, it was suddenly a great punch in the gut! The humanity! Really, how naive are we supposed to believe he was? He was a Wall Street trader but hadn't thought capitalism all the way through to the fact that gasp! factories get closed?