Liv Boeree: Poker Rules Of Life, Game Theory, AI & Effective Altruism

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Mar 2, 2023

Liv Boeree, a World Series of Poker champion and astrophysicist, shares her unique journey from academia to the poker scene. She discusses how game theory can enhance decision-making and resilience in everyday life. Liv also dives into the ethical implications of AI and the need for safe development to tackle global challenges. Additionally, she explores effective altruism, emphasizing logical approaches to philanthropy. This insightful conversation blends the worlds of gaming, science, and social responsibility.

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ANECDOTE

Game Show Experience

Liv Boeree's poker career began on a game show where she excelled initially.
A tearful loss in the final round taught her a valuable lesson about overconfidence.

ANECDOTE

Early Tournament Win

After the game show, Boeree won a local poker tournament despite being a beginner.
This win, coupled with encouragement from pros, fueled her belief in her poker talent.

ANECDOTE

Quitting Her Job

Boeree quit her data analysis job after winning an online poker tournament.
The prize, a trip to Las Vegas, solidified her desire to pursue poker professionally.

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Finite and infinite games

James P. Carse

In this book, James P. Carse distinguishes between finite and infinite games. Finite games are instrumental activities with clear rules, boundaries, and winners, such as sports, politics, and wars. Infinite games, on the other hand, are authentic interactions that aim to continue the play, changing rules and boundaries as needed. Carse explores how these concepts apply to various aspects of life, including culture, religion, sexuality, and self-discovery. He argues that finite games offer wealth, status, and power, while infinite games provide something more subtle and grander, such as true freedom and endless possibility. The book offers insights into how approaching life as either a finite or infinite game affects one's choices, satisfaction, and success[2][4][5].

Novacene

The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence

Brian Appleyard

James Lovelock

The bomb

presidents, generals, and the secret history of nuclear wa

Fred Kaplan

This book provides a comprehensive history of how America's presidents and generals have thought about, threatened, and just barely avoided nuclear war since the dawn of the atomic age. Fred Kaplan takes readers into the White House Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s 'Tank' in the Pentagon, and the vast chambers of Strategic Command to reveal untold stories based on his deep research and reporting. The book discusses theories and nightmare scenarios involving mass destruction, highlighting the enduring reality of nuclear war and its dire consequences.

Inadequate Equilibria

Eliezer Yudkowsky

Eliezer Yudkowsky's "Inadequate Equilibria" explores the concept of how systems, particularly social and economic ones, can become stuck in suboptimal states due to flawed incentives and cognitive biases. The book argues that identifying and challenging these 'inadequate equilibria' is crucial for progress and improvement. Yudkowsky uses examples from various fields to illustrate his points, emphasizing the importance of rationality and critical thinking in navigating complex systems. He highlights the role of individual action in disrupting these equilibria and creating positive change. The book's insights are relevant to a wide range of fields, including economics, technology, and social dynamics.

1984

None

George Orwell

Published in 1949, '1984' is a cautionary tale by George Orwell that explores the dangers of totalitarianism. The novel is set in a dystopian future where the world is divided into three super-states, with the protagonist Winston Smith living in Oceania, ruled by the mysterious and omnipotent leader Big Brother. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the Party's ever-changing narrative. He begins an illicit love affair with Julia and starts to rebel against the Party, but they are eventually caught and subjected to brutal torture and indoctrination. The novel highlights themes of government surveillance, manipulation of language and history, and the suppression of individual freedom and independent thought.

Liv Boeree is a World Series of Poker and European Poker Tour champion, and the only female player in history to win both a WSOP bracelet and an EPT event. Liv’s story is super interesting, because she actually has a degree in astrophysics and combined her science background and passion for games to get into the world of poker and win all these championships.These days Liv spends her time as a science communicator and games specialist, and focuses on educating others about how to apply scientific rational thinking techniques and things like game theory to the decisions we make in our everyday lives. Navigating through decisions in life can be a pretty difficult sometimes, but the single thing this conversation taught me is that, there’s a lot of principles we can steal from poker (like thinking processes and resilience strategies) to help us along the journey. In the conversation we talk about a whole bunch of things and by the end of the episode you’ll learn:

Game Theory: How lessons from poker can help you build resilience, and make better decisions for your life.
Effective Altruism: How humans can become better philanthropists by using logic and reason to figure out the most high expected value thing we can do to solve the worlds most pressing problems.
Safe AI Development - Why AI is the most high-stakes creation by humans to date and what their implications are for our future.

Enjoy!

Liv Boeree: Poker Rules For Life, Game Theory, AI & Effective Altruism

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CONNECT WITH LIV
YouTube Channel -
Website - https://livboeree.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/liv_boeree/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Liv_Boeree
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/livboeree
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/livboeree/

CONNECT WITH ALI
YouTube Channel - @aliabdaal
Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal
Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal
Website - https://aliabdaal.com
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-abdaal/

RESOURCES MENTIONED
Chris Sparks Deep Dive Episode - https://youtu.be/_Aode5viwOA
Liv’s TedTalk - https://youtu.be/nisSeC81u2M
DeepMind - https://www.deepmind.com/
80,000 hours podcast - https://80000hours.org/podcast/
Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander - https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
Moloch: The Beauty Wars - https://youtu.be/fifVuhgvQQ8
Moloch: The Media Wars - https://youtu.be/PRz54V7rU4U
Finite And Infinite Games: A Vision of Life As Play and Possibility by James Carse - https://geni.us/G5x3Um
Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence by James Lovelock - https://geni.us/AegS
Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck by Eliezer Yudkowsky - https://geni.us/AbLlbD
The Story Of Us by Tim Urban - https://bit.ly/3mhDx5b

SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT
Visit the website for the transcript and highlights from the conversation - https://aliabdaal.com/podcast/

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