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Why Millionaires Play Backgammon & Old Literary GossipI believe it was Ernest Hemmingway who described rich people as either drinking too much or playing too much backgammon. Richard Farleigh, whose aspiring millionaires self help book Taming the Lion: 100 Secret Strategies for Investing discusses, among other things presumably, the fruit bearing advantages of adopting backgammon strategy (as opposed to the over-planned chess strategy) in business investing, who is mentioned here for the second time, can maybe shed some light on this mystery.
Since the last time I wrote about Farleigh and his book, I learned, thanks to raxraxrax, that on top of being a self made millionaire before celebrating his 35th birthday (what does it really mean? That he earned his first million at 34? 34 and 11 months? When did 35 became a worth mentioning milestone?), Richard Farleigh is an international chess master who shared the 1978 junior chess championship of New South Wales, Australia, long before he was wealthy enough to retire and make his home at the tax haven World Backgammon Championship location of Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Looking back at his chess days and his successful investing days, he gives a clear advantage to backgammon strategy in making money. That is because, in business, as an in backgammon, randomness causes things to move, good ideas (or good players) can play badly, and the other way around. Maybe this can explain why rich people play too much backgammon.
& Old Literary Gossip
Another rich person who tries to grab new insights looking at the past is Emma Soames, Saga magazine editor, Sir Winston Churchill's granddaughter and for one year during the roaring 1970s, Martin Amis' girlfriend. On the Daily Mail, she recalls that certain year, wondering out loudly how and why she went through this year despite the controversial author's lilliputian height, infidelity and moreover his thanklessness that found expression in backgammon: as if it is not enough that he used her free backgammon tuition to intimate their relationship (while ignoring her close friendship with his then girlfriend), he has never stopped outplaying her ever since he grasped the fundamentals of the game.
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