Pick Your Madness

I discussed the matter of irrationality with my friend earlier today, talking about gambling in general. Gambling is patently unsatisfying to me, because the losses clearly exceed the gains, but people play it anyway. Somewhere along the discussion, he noted that watching movies was similarly irrational, because one pays to experience an illusion and comes out of it with no tangible gains as well. Good point!

So clearly, we all have our personal madnesses of choice. In fact, we probably have em without realizing exactly what they are. After some pondering, I figure the crux of the problem is that there's no absolute measure by which value is evaluated. I get negative value from losing money in a gamble and so I would not participate in gambling even though there's a chance that I can win. On the other hand, someone who likes the excitement of gambling will think me mad for watching movies if there's no monetary upside.

What the two seem to have in common is experience. There's an experience in the excitement of anticipating the gambling results. Movies and other similar entertainment are pure experiences. Likewise for hobbies and sports. If there's a madness people seem to be stuck to, chances are it's because the madness is associated with an experience that they truly like. Pick your madness.