i write because the the alternative forms of my obsessive insanity are either too destructive or decidedly less sexy.
gamblingguide
Poker is categorically different from every other casino game. The house takes a rake but doesn't play. Your edge comes entirely from being better than the other players. The rake structure and how it affects which games are beatable. Table selection as the highest-leverage skill. Exploitative strat
gamblingguide
Roulette is gorgeous, social, and has one of the worst player edges on the floor. The only strategic decision is which wheel to sit at. American vs European wheel and why the double zero adds 2.6% for no reason. Why every spin is independent and the gambler's fallacy explained through the history bo
gamblingguide
Baccarat has a reputation as a high-roller game requiring sophistication. It requires zero decisions. You pick Banker, Player, or Tie and watch cards get dealt. How the game actually works, why Banker is always the mathematically correct bet, why the Tie bet is a trap, the psychological appeal of pu
gamblingguide
Craps has the best odds on the floor and the most social energy of any game. People avoid it because the table looks like a NASA control panel. It's actually simple once you ignore 80% of it.
gamblingguide
Blackjack is the one table game where your decisions materially change the outcome. Basic strategy drops the house edge to under 0.5%. Most people play at 2-4% because they go on feel.
gamblingguide
Most people walk into a casino with magical thinking. This article kills that cleanly and replaces it with a framework that actually makes the casino more enjoyable not less. What house edge actually means in dollars per hour not percentages.
gamblingguide
How to Play Smart Extract Maximum Value and Never Be the Sucker at the Table. Behavioral economics lens throughout. Every game is a psychology and math problem not a luck problem.
diagnosisindustrialcomplex
The practical close. Your diagnosis is probably useful and probably not literally true simultaneously. How to hold that. What to take from the folk systems; what to take from the clinical ones; and how to stop outsourcing the map of your own mind to either.
diagnosisindustrialcomplex
RDoC; the NIMH's attempt to replace DSM categories with biological dimensions. Polygenic risk scores. Real imaging correlates. Where the actual science is going versus where clinical practice is stuck.
diagnosisindustrialcomplex
The direct comparison. Retest reliability; predictive validity; mechanistic basis. The MBTI performs worse than the Big Five on every psychometric measure and is used everywhere. Astrology performs comparably and is considered embarrassing. The difference is institutional laundering.
diagnosisindustrialcomplex
The autism and ADHD communities reframing diagnosis as variation rather than pathology. What happens to the whole diagnostic edifice if disorder is a context-dependent judgment rather than a biological fact.
diagnosisindustrialcomplex
Szasz; Laing; Foucault. Diagnosis as social control. Madness as rational response to insane conditions. They overcorrected badly but were pointing at something the mainstream still hasn't absorbed.