Re: welcome to the flat earth.

I long ago read "Winning Through Intimidation" by Robert Ringer.https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Through-Intimidation-Robert-Ringer/dp/0449207862

He came up with "The Ice Ball Theory". I love this concept. This theory has a lot to do with my losing the ability to be insulted by a nameless,faceless person on the internet. My life goes on whether the earth is flat, round or square. Does not matter to me.

Below is taken from his book.


Given the apparent, ultimate fate of earth and universe, it is vain and nonsensical to take oneself too seriously.

I call this the Ice Ball Theory as a result of an ominous description of the earth's future that I read some years ago. The author explained that our sun is slowly burning out, and that in about 50 billion years it will be completely extinguished. When that occurs, the earth will be nothing but a frozen ball of ice. Accompanying the explanation was a chilling illustration of what the earth might look like at that time.
As ominous as the explanation and illustration were, I came to the conclusion that it was just another reality of life, that there was absolutely nothing I could do about it, and that, in light of this very long-term reality, the immediate problems plaguing me-particularly in the Business-world Jungle-were so insignificant as to make me feel like an ant. The reality from my vantage point was that 50 billion years from now, when earth is nothing but an ice ball, my problems of today will be too insignificant to have even been recorded. Indeed, there would undoubtedly not even be a record of the entire century in which I had lived most of my life.
The Ice Ball Theory is the flip side of Mortality Theory coin. While on the one hand it makes sense to "go for it" in the time you have left on earth, the Ice Ball Theory eliminates stress and makes it possible for you to enjoy your quest for success. In fact, as most successful people have discovered, it's the striving and struggling for success, rather than success itself, that bring about greatest amount of joy.
Having this kind of mind-set puts you at a decided advantage over opponents who tend to view every deal as life or death. Stressed-out individuals press too hard for results at crucial moments, while you, by contrast, are able to calmly maintain your objectivity. And the harder someone presses for result, the less likely it is he will obtain it.
Not taking myself too seriously helped me to look at life as a game, and at business as a sort of poker game within the bigger game of life. I pictured the earth as a giant poker table upon which the game of business is played, with only a fixed number of chips on the table. Each player gets to participate for an unknown period of time, and the name of the game is to see how many chips he can pile onto his stack.
(I should point out that years later, when I became a student of Austrian economics, I came to understand that, technically speaking, the number of "chips" is not at all fixed, quite the contrary ,in fact. Business is not a sero-sum game, because more wealth is constantly being created. The stories in this book, however, relate to specific real estate deals, and rest assured that every real estate closing IS a zero-sum game. That's because the buyer is only willing to come up with "X" amount of money, the seller insists on receiving "Y" amount of money, and if it turns out that "Y" just happens to equal "X" -which is usually the case-the real estate agent ends up with "Z"[as in ZERO] amount of money.)
The chips themselves , of course, are of no particular use to anyone.In fact , financial gluttons found, to their dismay, that either bathing in money or eating it are unsanitary habits that can cause one to become quite ill. However, chips do serve as a means to end. The rules of the bigger game of life provide for the exchange of Jungle chips for material items that can help to enhance one's comfort and pleasure.
You might be inclined to ask, "IF life is nothing more than a game, why play so hard to win?" To which I would answer, Why NOT try to win-and, as a bonus, have some fun along the way? Seems like common sense to me.
So I decided to go for all I could get, as quickly as I could get it, while I was still vital enough to play the game. Recognizing that both life and business are games also made it easier for me not to take myself too seriously, which in turn made it that much easier to succeed. After all, if life is just a game, why be afraid to take chances? The reality is that there's no way that you are going to get out of the game alive anyway, so what's the point of playing a conservative hand?
In the next chapter, I relate some tales of woe that I experienced prior to grasping the significance of the Ice Ball Theory, and explain how these agonizing experiences helped me to further formulate my philosophy. As a result, I developed techniques not only to dramatically increase my earnings, but, more important, to make certain that I actually RECEIVED what I earned,
And, of course, had it not been my early understanding of the Theory of Sustenance of a Positive Attitude through the Assumption of a Negative Result, I would never have been able to survive the seemingly endless number of heartaches, humiliations, and frustrations that I endured during those early years of trial by fire.

Robert J. Ringer. ˜To be or Not to be intimidated? That's the question.' Chapter 2, ˜Replacing the Myths', p. 22-25