A metaphor that helps us better understand today’s world is poker, because in that game, even if I have less skills, it is likely that I will be able to win more than one game against a more experienced poker player; In several hands, my opponent can play very bad games or I can play very good ones and, depending on my abilities, I could win 2 out of 10 or 4 out of 10, for example.
Just like in poker, in dominoes, in soccer or in business, the most skilled do not always win, luck and changing circumstances will give the bad guy a chance to beat the good guy from time to time and the good player will always be in risk of losing to lower level players. Of course, if you do a long-term analysis, the statistics will tell you that those who have more developed abilities win more times.
If you want to be a good decision maker in real life, you must consider that there will be variables that were not foreseen and still decide by analyzing the data and statistics.
In poker, you know the game you got, but you don’t know what game your opponent got; you make decisions based on your experience, statistics, reading a series of signs, but never with the certainty of some open cards, that’s why when life opens its cards you discover that there were a couple of pandemics, a trio of wars, a crisis ladder, or a poker opportunity you didn’t see coming. It is as if many hands are played, one after the other, and with each hand the circumstances are changing. Those who want to decide thinking that everything is controlled as in chess, will only find surprises and frustration, but that does not mean that they should not base their decisions on data and statistics.
Become the best player
The first type what i found in decide and bet It is learning to see life and business as a game, a game in which you have skills that you can improve, but this game has dice, cards and roulette wheels that challenge us emotionally, because one of the most difficult things for human beings, As the author explains, it is to stop aspiring to total control and become a player and apprentice who has fun with the game of uncertainty.
Annie Duke wrote this book because she decided to take a sabbatical to play, but that year turned into 20 years, where in addition to becoming a world champion, she discovered in the game of poker a laboratory in which about 20 minutes are taken every two minutes. decisions, in which the best miss and succeed, but statistically in the long run, those who refine their mental and emotional capacity to bet win, and there it is the second guy.