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what was the point of a jackpot if I had a minimal bet?

xx.10.2026

to my younger self;

Life is a lot about placing bets. If you´re unsure of what to do in life, you can experiment with a large amount of small bets with a wide spread. That way you´ll find out faster the things you are naturally good at and find interest in. Those are the things you´ll be able to do without an external reward, for a long period of time. Those will be the things you should bet on big later. The earlier you go through that phase, the better (you have more time to work on the big bet).

Big bets are scary, and if you decide to place them, you want to know that you have maximized your luck surface area before taking them. The game can also be played by taking a lot of small bets throughout the whole game, and it´s called "playing it safe". It will just leave us with one thought. In case we hit a jackpot on something we believed but did not bet on big will leave us miserable. As you know, "what if" has always felt a lot worse than "damn, I fucked up bad". We also don´t want to end up as the "last man" (Nietzsche).

A degree is a bet on the system you are getting the degree in. You can maximize your luck surface area by maxing out your grades, networking really hard and doing a lot of extra-curricular activities. It is so called "safe" bet, since it is very unlikely that the whole system of the area of your degree collapses.

"betting on yourself" is a vague term and can mean anything. Lately for us it has meant not settling for the things that are told to be curious about, or take things as they are. It gives us freedom and responsibility, discomfort and stress but at the same time it has felt like the only way to go through life.

-s