I completely agree
I don't frequent this board much. The reason there are so few successful players is not as much about the misinformation or the heat or whatever, it is about dedication of the proper amount of time. No part-timer will ever find it a worthwhile venture. No mathematician truly understands how to divert attention away from himself/herself while in a casino environment.
You really do have to be a gambler first and a mathematician second. Without the plentiful time to play there will be no blackjack profits for you.
I have read alot of pessimistic shit around here. I stroll in and do not post much anymore. But this doomesday shit has been rolling around since the beginning of blackjack itself. I honestly feel players such as Carlson and all the others you mentioned may have been great pioneers, but that is where it stops. They simply don't have what it takes to bring it to the next level.
A few people that I know have succeeded in making it to that level, unfortunately one of them will not be able to play blackjack for a long time (silent prayer).
You can do whatever it is you want to do. But don't get too immersed into the books. Become the blackjack player that you are capable of. Know the math but don't get hell bent on it, your playing skills are most important. BTW there is no doomesday, I only here this crap about every week how it is unbeatable and there is even a professional sportsbettor who doesn't even beleive that the game is still the game. I mean this guy knows how to make money and you people got him thinking nobody can make money at blackjack. Absolute craziness. I had to put him in his place. God sometimes I really wonder, I have humanly love for all my brother men and as your brother I urge you to just relax, shoot the book away if you must, many of you are focusing too much negative energy and it is eating yas up inside.
Cutter