The guy who invented poker was bright, but the guy who invented the chip was a genius - Author Unknown

We post a poker related Thought of the Day on Poker Curious, presently located on our The Community page, but hopefully soon on our redone home page.  So I'm always looking around for more quotes (250 quotes already posted). I stumbled across this above quote recently, and while I didn't put it up on the site, I thought it would make for a decent little blog topic.

Poker is a card game where money, or chips, keep the score.  It is only when you can track results with some universal currency or rating that the game takes on a new competitive and comparative level.  Tournament players love their rankings.  Cash game players love their bb/100.  SNG players love their ROI.  Online players obsess about their all-in equity graphs. People crave parameters of comparison.  It isn't only a competition against who you play at the table, but who also plays your game or level.

It is basic human nature to compare results  We do it in all areas of our lives.  You look at someone's wife or girlfriend and compare to your own.  While in society we don't typically announce our earnings or salary, we compare our car, house or extravagant possessions.  We want to know where we stand.  

Personally, I'm not one to do as much of that.  I can notice differences, but they don't matter as much to me.  As long as I can manage my expectations, I can live with that.  My wife joked the other day that I wasn't ambitious enough, but I prefer to look at it as not caring as much about material and comparative elements in my life.  Maybe I simply have a different currency that I judge my chip stack with?