When to Quit?

The author of Thinking in Bets talks about his decision to quit. He says there are very few things that you can't go back to, even if it's a few decades later. "I've been quite a quitter," he admits.

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BIO: Annie Duke loves to dive deep into decision-making under uncertainty. Her latest obsession is the topic of quitting.

STORY: Annie’s worst investment ever was becoming a poker player.

LEARNING: It’s ok to do a few different things at a time. Quit more if you have to.

“Quit more.”

Annie Duke

Guest profile

Annie Duke loves to dive deep into decision-making under uncertainty. Her latest obsession is the topic of quitting. In particular, she is on a mission to rehabilitate the term and get people to be proud of walking away from things. Annie is an author, speaker, and consultant in the decision-making space, as well as Special Partner, focused on Decision Science at First Round Capital Partners, a seed stage venture fund. Annie’s latest book, Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, was released October 4, 2022, from Portfolio, a Penguin Random House imprint. Her previous book, Thinking in Bets, is a national bestseller.

Worst investment ever

Annie had been pursuing a Ph.D. in cognitive science for five years. The plan was to become a tenure track professor. Right at the end of her time at university, Annie started suffering from stomach problems, which became acute. She got pretty sick and landed in the hospital. Annie then decided to take a year off. She needed money during that year off, so she started playing poker to make money.

Annie considers going into poker her worst investment ever because there wasn’t a lot of process behind that decision. She just thought it would be a fun way to make the money she badly needed. She didn’t think about the consequences of that decision, and even though she did well at playing poker and had some pretty good wins, Annie wishes she had put more thought into it.

Lessons learned

If the time and investment are small to complete something, just do it.
Do things in parallel. That means it’s ok to do a few different things at a time.
Keep your investments robust, not just against luck, but against your poor decision-making.