this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2024
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Today I Learned

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[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 199 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Before this, he won $4,000,000 by inheriting it and was able to convince a bunch of his rich friends and fellow Yale alums to bet $91,000,000 on FedEx.

Lucky guy winning that $27 grand...

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 70 points 3 months ago

Jesus christ. Way to spoil the mood! /s

It’s actually very good to always attach these „privileged ~~success~~ stories“ to these people to demystify them.

[–] teamshinanagin@lemm.ee 19 points 3 months ago

This guy was so lucky! It says here also he killed someone in a hit and run (no charges) and separately a passengers of his car died after he flipped it (no charges, the cause of the accident never determined)

[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 months ago

Wow, that sounds so easy. I guess anyone can be successful!

[–] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 125 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Remember kids, with a little hard work and a lot of luck gambling, you too can be a successful capitalist.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 59 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Just don’t gamble with your own money. Be sure to take the company’s last $5000 instead.

[–] FutileRecipe@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Be sure to take the company’s last $5000 instead.

Well, now I need to find a company. Oh, one with $5000.

[–] abfarid@startrek.website 4 points 3 months ago
[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 48 points 3 months ago

rolls dice

Fuck. Now I'm capital-less

[–] callouscomic@lemm.ee 62 points 3 months ago

This kind of mismanagement and just operating off sheer luck kind of explains why I have never gotten a package from them that WASN'T damaged.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 54 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If it happened to him, it could happen to me! The world is build on extraordinary events!
--Three days later--
Bankruptcy.

[–] houstoneulers@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You still have 67 hours. You can comeback. Just one more roulette spin.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

I-- I bet the house, I'm all in! I don't care, this is it!

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 24 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Insufficient information that defies odds. Was he counting cards?

[–] Vent@lemm.ee 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No, but he went with a thousand other shipping company CEOs and only him and the UPS guy came out with money.

[–] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Invisible Hand Of The Market

[–] TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I’ve heard this story a few times and supposedly it happened over a weekend but yeah either the guy was a very good card counter and played a ton or recklessly bet it on roulette and got insanely lucky if this is true.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Seems so absurd to me that there is an officially sanctioned game in the gambling scene that can be gamed by a skilled player to win, and they just blatantly ban doing that, and yet people still play it. Not the game is banned mind you, the winning through logic part. Cant have anyone make bank but, well, the bank.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 4 points 3 months ago

I mean its legal. They can just deny customers without giving a reason.

[–] SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Someone has to win.

It just won’t ever be you or me lol

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

At blackjack? It can be the house every time. Usually it is.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

To illustrate, let's play a game. We each put in a dollar, and whoever wins a coin flip gets the two dollars. Completely fair, even odds, right? We'll play until one of us decides to stop or someone runs out of money.

I'll start with $1000 and you start with $10. Let's see how it turns out.

If it helps, picture a graph where the bottom axis is number of coin flips and the Y axis is the amount each player is up or down in total. Each flip can move the graph by $1, up or down randomly. So it's going to bounce a little, because it's random. Some bounces will be bigger than others.

The house can offer you completely fair odds and still take your money just fine.

[–] SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Are you guys seriously lecturing me about blackjack based on an unfounded and incorrect assumption I don’t understand how it works?

This is like some Internet variation of mansplaining. Do just assume someone doesn’t know something because hand waves and then start lecturing them about the subject?

[–] SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yes the house has a seat at the table. It was a boiled down one liner about the follies of gambling and thinking you will win. I don’t need someone to explain blackjack to me or how a casino works. I’m 40 and not that boring.

[–] cashmaggot@piefed.social 13 points 3 months ago

I feel like there's undercover mob stuff happening here. But I also cannot prove it in any way, shape or form.

[–] walter_wiggles@lemmy.nz 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't see how $27,000 could buy a meaningful amount of fuel.

[–] subtext@lemmy.world 36 points 3 months ago

$27k in 1971 is about $209k today and it only bought them about a week of fuel.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 months ago

Seems appropriate when using their service is such a gamble.

[–] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Isn't it illegal to use company funds for personal entertainment?

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Given how I've never had a good FedEx experience, this tracks.