Wheeee!

Cow Tokens! Get your Ur Cow Tokens here!

Sumerian Cow Tokens
April 24th, 2017

So what is the value of an Ur Cow Token?

Sorry, I can’t get a market price for Ur per se so you’ll have to settle for a Sumerian one from around 1953 – 1935 BCE backed (and baked) by the Royal mint itself which in “very good” condition fetches around $1200 in Federal Reserve notes good for all Debts Public and Private.

Or a Cow if you have a TARDIS, market value for one of those is $1642 and you get the income from the meat and milk and manure and the little baby Cows which over a 4.7 year lifespan (oh, don’t get sentimental on me, we’re talking about an imaginary Cow from an economic standpoint and you can keep it in a feedlot so you don’t have to do any of those icky pitchfork thingees).
…
Anyway it’s $2582 in net income at least which is more than twice as many green pieces of paper as that dried out piece of dirt.

Wait ek. I can monetize that future income and invest it in something with a higher return!

Sure, at a discount, and please tell me what other investments are going to yield 20% per year?

Uber stocks?

                  12/19/17   12/19/18
        Dow      24,792.20  23,323.66  -1,468.54
        S&P 500   2,690.16   2,505.95    -184.21
        NASDAQ    6,994.76   6,636.83    -357.93

My point in this particular piece is the concept of notional value. It’s about the same as getting Pot Drunk in Poker. Just because you put a lot of money in doesn’t change your hand, that money is gone. At each stage of the game you need to evaluate its strength against the strength of the other hands in the Pot which you do based on incomplete information including what you know about the habits of your opponents. This is why I doubt Computers will ever be any good at it.

If you play for money the easiest way to make some is create a game so complicated (Dealer’s Choice) that it convinces weaker players that their hand is strong or can improve when it’s not very likely to. This way they will keep adding money until you win. My sucker game is 7 Card Stud, Hi-Lo, 2 down, 4 up, 1 down, with a fair amount of wild cards (at least 8) and 3 Twists. Twists are face up cards you have to pay for (some go for Pot Match, I normally call prix fixe at 5, 10, and 25 because I am not a total asshole) and have to use. Hi-Lo means that you can shoot for the best hand or the most worthless hand. You split the pot unless everyone folds and you can compete for both parts of the pot by rearranging your cards.

If you’re not looking to catch a Straight Flush or better after 5 cards or working a 7 high for Low hand, time to drop. Only idiots buy twists, for one thing it’s a sign of weakness. It’s really a simple game if you know how to play.

Some people perceive value based on how much they’ve invested, sunk costs. Others know it’s how much money you can get for it now and how much it will cost to replace.

I, for one, am always willing to trade magic beans for live jive Cows. Hope you get lots of golden eggs before the traitorous harp calls the Giant on you.

And now, The Epic of Gilgamesh, not in Sumerian.