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> So no I don't regret passing up on buying BTC, precisely because it was and is a lottery ticket and I'm not in the business of buying lottery tickets no matte

> So no I don't regret passing up on buying BTC, precisely because it was and is a lottery ticket and I'm not in the business of buying lottery tickets no matter how well conceived they may be. Dude, this is nonsense. Everyone regrets passing up on buying BTC because it's currently worth $6k because you can sell it right now for that money. Anything else is complex rationalization to make yourself feel better.

todayiamme 9y ago
Look life is filled with lottery tickets with unknowable odds, playing every lottery out there just in case you win is foolish and a misallocation of resources. I'd much rather invest it into myself and build a game where I know the odds. My life isn't a lottery ticket.
zzalpha 9y ago
Nonsense indeed... I made what I believed was a rational risk assessment at the time (back when MtGox was spinning up... Not exactly the most credible days for BTC) and decided to avoid the hype. Could I use the money now? Sure. It's money. But I don't regret the decision now because I was acting on the information I had. Heck, even now, it's possible for someone to buy BTC and for it to crash. Should those people regret their decision even if, in their estimation, it's rational now? To be blunt: if you spend any time regretting these types of things you're a gambler, not an investor, and will find yourself tricked into trying to time markets. And that will eventually bite you in the ass. As for me, the same reasoning that kept me out of the market then keeps me out now: I don't believe in the fundamentals and I'm not a gambler. Full stop. For those who do, the should buy and hold for the long term to realize the most gains. But "it's worth a lot more now than it was 10 years ago" is not fundamentals. It's just the irrational assumption that past performance predicts future behaviour.
atomashpolskiy 9y ago
But that's the whole point. It's completely irrational to regret not buying a winning lottery ticket, because it might as well not win. The only question is, what were the odds?

todayiamme 9y ago

Look life is filled with lottery tickets with unknowable odds, playing every lottery out there just in case you win is foolish and a misallocation of resources. I'd much rather invest it into myself and build a game where I know the odds. My life isn't a lottery ticket.

zzalpha 9y ago

Nonsense indeed... I made what I believed was a rational risk assessment at the time (back when MtGox was spinning up... Not exactly the most credible days for BTC) and decided to avoid the hype. Could I use the money now? Sure. It's money. But I don't regret the decision now because I was acting on the information I had. Heck, even now, it's possible for someone to buy BTC and for it to crash. Should those people regret their decision even if, in their estimation, it's rational now? To be blunt: if you spend any time regretting these types of things you're a gambler, not an investor, and will find yourself tricked into trying to time markets. And that will eventually bite you in the ass. As for me, the same reasoning that kept me out of the market then keeps me out now: I don't believe in the fundamentals and I'm not a gambler. Full stop. For those who do, the should buy and hold for the long term to realize the most gains. But "it's worth a lot more now than it was 10 years ago" is not fundamentals. It's just the irrational assumption that past performance predicts future behaviour.

atomashpolskiy 9y ago

But that's the whole point. It's completely irrational to regret not buying a winning lottery ticket, because it might as well not win. The only question is, what were the odds?