There are two things that as a male I’m statistically way more likely to be into but for some reason am not: gambling and video games.

On gambling, McKay Coppins’ article “Sucker: My Year As A Degenerate Gambler” in The Atlantic was really eye-opening, as was the recent Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know episode “Are Prediction Markets Ruining Everything?” There are giant, obscenely funded industries dedicated to preying on human psychology and parting people from their money, and I’m just not interested in subjecting myself to them.

I don’t consider myself an anxious person at all, but I’m also not reckless. I’m certainly more risk-averse than the average dude though. I didn’t drink alcohol until I was 21. I’ve only gotten one driving ticket in my life (at 18 for supposedly running a red light but it was borderline at best). I’ve never been in a casino or even bought a lottery ticket.

Was it my religious background? My particular nature/nurture makeup? Who knows. I do know not having an addictive personality has kept me out of trouble. Though having the opposite—an aversive personality—has its own downsides too in the risks I should have taken but didn’t, and the fruits I could have enjoyed but won’t. That’s the calculation we all make when considering opportunity costs throughout life.

Video games are another example. Having not grown up with them, by all rights I should have leaned into them hard as an adult to make up for lost time. Instead, to cite another logical fallacy, I didn’t want my time with them to become a sunk cost when there were other things I was more interested in like books, movies, and music. Those aren’t mutually exclusive interests, but they do all compete for the same limited hours in the day.

All this to say, I got 99 problems but a bet (or bit) ain’t one.