World Poker Champion On The Science Of Decision Making - Chris Sparks
Sep 1, 2022
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Chris Sparks, a retired professional poker player and performance coach, shares fascinating insights into decision-making derived from poker strategies. He discusses the psychological edge in competition and the importance of systems thinking in achieving success. Sparks emphasizes treating life as a series of experiments and the value of understanding both our own and others' problems. His framework encourages evaluating risks using expected value, while also highlighting how personal growth stems from self-assessment and overcoming biases.
Poker provides valuable lessons in high performance, systems thinking, and decision making.
Becoming a professional poker player demands dedication, continuous study, and adaptation to changing strategies.
Online poker emphasizes statistical analysis, while live poker focuses on social dynamics and situational adaptation.
Expected value is a crucial concept in poker and life, enabling informed decision-making based on risk assessment.
A performance coach acts as an objective observer, providing accountability and supporting progress towards goals.
Deep dives
The Power of Game Theory and Systems Thinking
Poker can be seen as a lens for understanding game theory and systems thinking, which have broader applications in decision making, human performance, and understanding oneself. The skills developed in poker, such as decision making under pressure and understanding the psychology of oneself and others, can translate to success in various fields.
Becoming a Professional Poker Player
Becoming a professional poker player requires dedication and a willingness to fully commit to the game. It is important to assess if poker is something you truly want to pursue as a career and if you are willing to put in the necessary time and effort. Professional poker players often invest countless hours studying and analyzing the game, adapting to changing strategies, and continuously improving their skills.
Online Poker vs Live Poker
Online poker and live poker have different dynamics. Online poker allows for more statistical analysis and the ability to play multiple games simultaneously, while live poker is more about social dynamics and adapting to changing situations in person. Both have their own advantages and challenges, and each player should consider their strengths and preferences when choosing the format they want to pursue.
The Concept of Expected Value
Expected value is a crucial concept in poker and life. It assesses the potential outcomes and risks of a decision, weighing the possible rewards against the likelihood of success. By considering expected value, individuals can make more informed choices and evaluate the risks and rewards of various opportunities. This mindset of consciously assessing potential outcomes can be applied to decision-making in different aspects of life.
The role of a performance coach
A performance coach acts as a third-party objective observer, helping high performers accelerate their progress towards their goals. They provide accountability, mirror important values, and support the creation of systems and processes for success.
The importance of prioritization
Coaches help clients prioritize their goals and identify the actions needed to achieve them. They challenge clients to ensure they are prioritizing the most important tasks and not getting distracted by less significant ones.
The value of experimentation
Coaching involves creating and testing experiments to find what works best for the client. This includes identifying actions that lead to progress, iterating on strategies, and collecting data to assess what is effective.
Becoming a coach as a side hustle
Starting a coaching business as a side hustle involves seeking feedback and validation from others who appreciate your skills and expertise. It requires curiosity, a deep understanding of the coaching field, and a passion for helping others succeed.
Finding Your Path and Building Skills
The podcast discusses the importance of finding your passion and aligning it with your skills. The speaker shares their own experience of trying different things and realizing that teaching was their true calling. They emphasize that it's important to prioritize what you enjoy and what you're already good at. They also recommend building a variety of skills, particularly interpersonal skills and skills in organization and idea sharing, as these tend to compound over time. The speaker suggests starting with what you're already interested in and finding ways to share your work with others, as this can lead to new opportunities and intersections.
Balancing Ambition and Happiness
The podcast explores the balance between ambition and happiness and how it relates to decision-making and productivity. The speaker acknowledges that it's easy to fall into the trap of justifying unproductive behaviors as self-care or convincing oneself that working harder is the only way to achieve success. They advise considering the most direct path to your goals and experimenting with different approaches to see what works best for you. They highlight the importance of being present and engaging in activities that recharge and inspire you. The speaker also mentions the value of their free performance assessment tool, which helps individuals identify their goals and the most impactful actions to take for improvement.
Chris Sparks is a retired professional poker player, recently ranked in the top 20 online cash game players in the world. He’s also the Founder of Forcing Function where he teaches elite poker frameworks to a select group of twelve investors and executives in meaningful companies, and the author of Experiment Without Limits, a comprehensive workbook for achieving peak performance and leads workshops on decision-making, systems thinking, and performance architecture to organisations and investment teams. In the conversation we talk about what we can learn from the world of poker around high performance and how systems thinking and decision making is crucial for success. Enjoy!
(00:00) Intro (02:17) Being a professional poker player (06:00) The 'Red Queen' Effect (08:18) The psychological advantage and self-deception (13:04) Online vs real life poker (20:16) Relativistic skills (25:24) Having a mindset of abundance (32:27) Applying lessons from poker to your life (50:15) Understanding other peoples' problems better than our own (54:21) Experiment Without Limits (01:02:14) The power of objectivity (01:18:25) Perfectionistic tendencies (01:25:00) Deciding your priorities (01:28:22) Being a performance coach (01:42:31) Realising everything is a choice (01:47:40) The status quo bias and forcing functions (01:58:27) Chris' Free Performance Assessment
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