I thought it was interesting how cavalier Kevin is throughout the book. Even when things go downhill for the team he still is addicted and won't stop he thinks he is invincible. Even though he keeps telling himself to be careful and views himself as the most level headed of the team he still acts really without much thought. I think this tells us a lot about human nature and how we view ourselves. It is a lot like in "To Build a Fire" because the man in that story also is unconcerned with his survival simply because he's a man (in the human sense of the word rather than gender). Where as Throueau might say that humans genius is the only thing we have to survive I think based on this book it shows that really human's instincts are flawed and should not be followed. Every thing in our book is calculated and set up, planned weeks in advance and thats when it works but whenever someone deviates from the plan or acts on instinct thing go aery. Another connection I made from the book was in the whole is the american dream a false hope or not question. Basically the entire concept of the book goes against the american dream, kids going to a weekend of partying in Vegas to get rich, completely the opposite of working hard to get rich. Not only that but Kevin even turns his back on his family to pursue this path. Kevin deals with this for a bit by keeping his job but even then his real love is for the cards. It seems that the american dream has really morphed from work hard to get rich to just get rich, however you can. While what they are doing is a moral dilemma I personally agree that it's totally just. The students are just using their skills to get what they want they aren't changing the game at all. It's just the same as other "careers" it's like being a model not everyone can be a model its a matter of genetics, not everyone can be a genius some people are just born with a math or science brain so why should they be barred from using their abilities? That being said I think the MIT team is incredibly stupid. It's such an old thing for people who start getting rich get a little too cocky and then it all goes wrong and that's exactly what happens! If they had been slightly more careful they probably would've made a ton more but of course they get greedy and it makes them stupid. Which once again goes back to human nature, humans are naturally greedy which makes us stupid and unable to trust our "genius".