Annie Duke, a bestselling author and former championship poker player, shares her insights on decision-making and the art of quitting. She discusses how poker strategies can apply to life choices, emphasizing the significance of assessing risks and adapting. Duke challenges the stigma around quitting, highlighting cognitive biases that often trap people in unproductive situations. With anecdotes from her career and personal life, she illustrates the importance of flexibility in goal-setting and the need for strategic quitting to navigate towards success.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Annie's Game-Playing Childhood
Annie Duke grew up in a game-playing family focused on skill-based card games, not just poker.
She played competitive games like hearts, gin, oh hell, and Scrabble, influencing her decision-making skills early on.
insights INSIGHT
Understanding Decision Uncertainty
Most of our decisions are made under uncertainty from luck and hidden information.
Recognizing the roles of luck and unknown factors helps make better expected value decisions.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Focus on Downside vs Upside
Evaluate decisions by comparing downside risk to upside potential before committing.
Embrace uncertainty instead of seeking certainty to avoid paralysis by analysis.
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In this book, Daniel Kahneman takes readers on a tour of the mind, explaining how the two systems of thought shape our judgments and decisions. System 1 is fast, automatic, and emotional, while System 2 is slower, effortful, and logical. Kahneman discusses the impact of cognitive biases, the difficulties of predicting future happiness, and the effects of overconfidence on corporate strategies. He offers practical insights into how to guard against mental glitches and how to benefit from slow thinking in both personal and business life. The book also explores the distinction between the 'experiencing self' and the 'remembering self' and their roles in our perception of happiness.
Thinking in bets
Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
Annie Duke
In this book, Annie Duke teaches readers how to make better decisions by treating them as 'bets' on uncertain outcomes. She emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between the quality of a decision and its outcome, acknowledging the role of luck, and avoiding biases such as 'resulting' and hindsight bias. Duke draws on her experiences as a professional poker player and combines these with insights from cognitive psychology and other fields to provide tools for making more objective and thoughtful decisions. The book encourages readers to get comfortable with uncertainty, seek truth through diverse opinions, and learn from outcomes to improve future decision-making[1][3][5].
Grit
The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela Duckworth
In this book, Angela Duckworth presents a compelling argument that success is driven more by grit, a fusion of relentless passion and perseverance, than by talent. She explains what grit is, how to identify and develop it, and how it can be grown through stages such as developing interests, consistent practice, finding a pro-social purpose, and cultivating optimism. The book is structured in three parts: explaining what grit is and why it matters, how to grow grit from the inside out, and how to grow grit from the outside in, targeting parents, coaches, teachers, and organizational leaders. Duckworth supports her arguments with personal stories, historical insights, and interviews with high achievers from various fields.
Quit
The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away
Annie Duke
Annie Duke 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. Annie’s is the bestselling author of multiple books, most notably Thinking In Bets and Quit. Annie was previously a championship winning poker player, having amassed over $4 million in tournament winnings, won a World Series of Poker Bracelet, and having won the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. As if that wasn’t enough, Annie also completed her PhD in Cognitive Psychology at UPenn in 2023.
In this classic episode, Annie joined host Robert Glazer on the Elevate Podcast to discuss learnings from her poker career, how to think in bets, and the importance of knowing when to quit.
This episode of the Elevate Podcast is sponsored by:
Elevate with Robert Glazer 
