Human nature

"Dateline NBC" recently had a fine piece about human gullibility, how our natural instincts--such as obeying authority, going along with the crowd, and greed--can lead us astray and be used to deceive and manipulate us. You can watch it here. (The second half will air in June, I understand.) If you don't think that knowing about your own innate tendencies along these lines is relevant to success at poker, then don't watch it--and let me know where you'll be playing, so that I can come take your money.

In the same general vein, there is this interesting report about something I hadn't heard of before: "Williams syndrome," which causes its victims to be pathologically trusting of others. It's slightly disconcerting to be reminded that qualities like suspicion are sufficiently genetic in origin that a mutation can distort or even erase them, but that's how we're wired, all right. I'm afraid that the little girl profiled is in for a very rough life, fraught with encounters with wicked people who will happily exploit her trust for their own selfish purposes. The very least of her problems is that she will never be able to be a successful poker player.