Not many people can say they became a professional poker player while researching a book, but in Dr. Maria Konnikova’s case, she can. In her latest book My Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win, journalist and award-winning author Konnikova explains how her research into the science between luck, skill, randomness, and the myth that hard work always leads to success led her to become an international champion poker player.Konnikova explores the significant overlap between the game of poke and the game of life and finds that it is often what determines success: skill and chance. When playing a game with incomplete information, while you cannot control the randomness of the shuffle, if you can identify where skill ends and chance begins, you can master the skills necessary to succeed. Dr. Konnikova explains how by learning to identify the difference between what is skill and what is chance, we hone our strategic thinking, learning to master what we can control and release what we can’t. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Patrick each Monday to go deeper on all things FOMO Sapiens, including thoughts on last week’s episode, practical advice, current events, and listener mail.Thanks to this episode's sponsor Podcorn. Explore sponsorship opportunities and start monetizing your podcast by signing up here: https://podcorn.com/podcasters/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have an expansive network yet it rarely yields any benefits? Are you frustrated, feeling like you are providing as little value to your network as it does to you? That’s probably because while you have succeeded at building a vast network, you have failed at making meaningful connections. Author, serial networker, and master connector Susan McPherson shares insights from her book The Lost Art of Connection: The Gater, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Business Relationships and how by pivoting your approach to meeting new people you can become a reliable resource with whom people want to.  From learning how to do self-assessments to navigating cultural and generational nuances, in her book, Susan explains how easy it can be to cultivate a long-lasting community of connections. Every connection is a conduit and by changing your thinking from “what can I get” to “what can I give” you can master the lost art of connection Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Patrick each Monday to go deeper on all things FOMO Sapiens, including thoughts on last week’s episode, practical advice, current events, and listener mail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you struggle to find the balance between hard work and burnout? Does it sometimes seem impossible to get it all done? Once you’ve hit a wall and you strip away all the non-essentials, does it still seem too much? Then it’s time for a new approach.That’s exactly what author Greg McKeown discusses in his new book Effortless: Making it Easy to Do What Matters. Hard work is indeed a virtue, he agrees, but Greg argues that any virtue can become a vice when taken too far. Greg shares strategies and practices to avoid physical and mental burnout while cultivating an effortless state of focus, smarter productivity, and, most importantly, long-term sustainability. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Patrick each Monday to go deeper on all things FOMO Sapiens, including thoughts on last week’s episode, practical advice, current events, and listener mail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How is it that some people can convince others to back them, is its personality, style, charisma? No, says Suneel Gupta, author of the new book Backable. Explaining that creativity and persuasion are not the same thing, Suneel shares how his book can help the well-intention strengthen their conviction and enable them to successfully share their insights and ideas.   Using failure as a foundation for learning and growth, Suneel explains that conviction is contagious and the importance of unique insight in establishing value. Being backable, he says, isn’t about being the most outgoing or charming person in the room, it’s about being the most confident in your ideas and intentions.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Patrick each Monday to go deeper on all things FOMO Sapiens, including thoughts on last week’s episode, practical advice, current events, and listener mail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can a global pandemic provide a platform for change? If you are Kwame Owusu-Kesse, CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), the answer is a resounding yes. With a pre-existing, comprehensive, platform aimed to combat racial inequity and bridge educational divides, the Harlem Children’s Zone was in a uniquely well-prepared position when COVID hit. Able to identify the immediate and long-term needs of their community members, HCZ focused on a 5-pronged approach. Comprehensive and strategic, Kwame’s plan, designed to serve the local Harlem community, was quickly scaled for national use. Kwame explains how his journey as the child of Ghanaian immigrants was forever changed as the result of a little luck in a little church basement. He took that luck and turned it into opportunity and from that opportunity and hard work, Kwame has successfully transferred his experience in the private sector to benefit the public sector.Kwame shares how he and the HCZ are dedicated to taking luck out of the equation so that every child experiences the freedom and independence that comes with opportunity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Patrick each Monday to go deeper on all things FOMO Sapiens, including thoughts on last week’s episode, practical advice, current events, and listener mail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices