Annie Duke is an author, speaker, and decision-making consultant. Her latest book, How to Decide  is already earning rave reviews and her previous one, Thinking in Bets, became a national bestseller.

As a former professional poker player, Annie won more than $4 million in tournament poker before retiring from the game in 2012. Prior to this she was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

If you're anything like most people, you probably don't have much of a process for making decisions – from pro and con lists to getting caught in analysis paralysis, decision making can be incredibly painful.

But what if there was a better way to make quality decisions so you could think clearly, feel more confident, second-guess yourself less, and ultimately be more decisive and be more productive?

What if decision making was a learnable skill? Annie has dedicated herself to teaching it through her books and consulting

In this episode we discuss:

- What games like poker, chess and backgammon can teach us about decision making

- How to learn effectively from your experiences without becoming biased by outcomes

- How to overcome analysis paralysis and eliminate unnecessary decisions

This was a great wide ranging conversation with a lot of practical applications that will help you combat your own biases, address your weaknesses and become a better and more confident decision-maker.

Show Notes

• Introducing Annie Duke [00:36]
• When did Annie first realise that she was good at something and what was she like at school? [02:52]
• How does linguistics overlap with mathematics? [05:17]
• What can games like chess, backgammon, and poker teach us about decision-making, probability and luck? [08:18]
• How does chess differ from poker in terms of strategy and the level of difficulty? [12:20]
• What is the paradox of experience? Why is it more difficult to learn from experiences with good outcomes versus those with bad outcomes? [15:22]
• What is a decision tree and how does it help us with decision-making? [19:28]
• How can focusing on probability hinder the learning process [21:27]
• What are the two reasons resulting happens? [25:00]
• How does the feeling of inevitability further establish the concept of resulting? [27:10]
• Why does exploring our preferences improve our chances of success? [29:32]
• How maximising the probability of failure can lead to a more satisfying payoff [31:15]
• How does our need for validation limit the way we act on our preferences? [33:16]
• How can you automate inconsequential decisions in your life? Which decisions does Annie have on autopilot? [35:46]
• How assessing the long-term impacts of a decision can help you become better at decision-making [36:46]
• How has Annie’s teaching evolved with her studies in decision-making? [42:17]
• Closing remarks [47:02]

Resources

Follow Annie online

Website | Newsletter | Twitter

• How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices by Annie Duke
• Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts by Annie Duke
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein