Have you ever wanted to master the art of decision-making?
Consider playing poker. Poker is an excellent tool for developing strategy, decision-making skills, and learning the subtle tells of other people.
Welcome back to another episode of The School of Greatness, guys! This episode is all about how we can use poker concepts to increase our likelihood of success. My guest on the show today, Maria Konnikova, is an expert on the subjects of luck and human behavior.
Even though she started playing poker to research the relationship between luck and what we can control, Maria has now accomplished a lot on the poker table and is full of tips for applying poker skills to your own life!
If you’re interested in learning about poker, decision-making skills, and human behavior, you’re not going to want to miss this episode!
Who Is Maria Konnikova?
Maria Konnikova is a New York Times bestselling author responsible for the books Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock, The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It… Every Time, and her recently published third book The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win. She’s contributed several articles to The New Yorker, and she received the 2019 Excellence in Science Journalism Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.
Maria studied psychology at Harvard University and received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University.
On top of her expansive writing resume, she also recently became a professional poker player. Her journey to becoming a major contender in the World Series of Poker began with her interest in writing a book on luck and game theory.
“I became really interested in the notion of luck and the role that luck plays in our lives and how we can learn to really spot luck and to tell the difference between what we control, what we don’t, where our skill ends and where … luck and chance [begin].” – Maria Konnikova
Maria turned to the writings of John von Neumann, one of the founders of game theory, but she quickly discovered that von Neumann’s favorite game was a more suitable way to understand strategy and decision making:
“[I learned that] not only was [John von Neumann] a poker player, but that poker inspired game theory. … And he wrote that poker was the most perfect analogy for strategic decision-making that he’d ever come across. And he actually thought that … if you could solve no limit [Texas] hold ’em, which is what I ended up playing, you’d solve life, basically. You’d have a roadmap for the most complex human decisions.” – Maria Konnikova
Maria rigorously studied the game with poker expert Eric Sydell, and she grew from participating in games with $1 buy-ins to earning over $300,000 in professional tournaments.
In her time playing and writing about poker, she has learned a ton of applicable skills for everyday decision-making that you have got to hear! Let’s get into it!
Luck Vs. Skill
Maria and I discussed how life is full of lucky circumstances. When you think about it, you were incredibly lucky even to be born:
“… being born right away you’ve won the lottery. Most people … are never born. So poets greater than Keats and scientists greater than Newton [were] never born because they didn’t win that particular combination. That sperm and ovarian lottery didn’t happen. So we’re just lucky to be alive.” – Maria Konnikova
Maria used that example to show the fact that luck will always play into everything that we do. The circumstances you’re born into and the opportunities that become available to you are largely based on luck.
Successful people often like to pretend that they got to where they are purely through their intelligence and hard work, but Maria argues that they should take off their rose-colored glasses and realize that it took immense luck in addition to their hard work.
A crucial part of success that you can learn from poker is that even though many things are out of your control, you can work hard on what is in your control, and you can take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. In poker, you can’t control the hand that you’re dealt, but you can use your hand to the best of your abilities.
“One of the things poker teaches you is that you need to focus on what you can control, on your decisions, on the things that you can actually take responsibility for.” – Maria Konnikova
Don’t focus on what you can’t control in your life but what you can. From there, you can put in the work necessary and make the best decisions to get to where you want to be.
You also need to pay attention to the possibilities that present themselves:
“I think one of the things that I’ve learned over the years, both through poker and before, is how essential it is to be present and to actually pay attention, actively pay attention throughout our days.” – Maria Konnikova
Maria described how our brains are all over the place because of modern technology. We multitask and distract ourselves with our phones rather than focus on what’s in front of us. To see the opportunities around you, you need to condition yourself to focus on one thing at a time and be present in the moment.
“I’m not going to be multitasking. I’m actually going to make that conscious choice to be present. It takes so much energy. Most people don’t do that, but that’s what allows you to have enough awareness and open-mindedness to actually spot opportunities and see what’s going on.” – Maria Konnikova
When you’re able to identify the opportunities in your life and work hard with what’s in your control, you increase your likelihood of success.
