Tag Archives: skill luck axis

A Skill Game With Random Elements – Poker, Life, You Name It!

jason-calacanis-annie-duke.jpg

 

Jason Calacanis (Jason and NNT actually met at Edge Master Class 2009) is a serial entrepreneur currently the founder of Mahalo.com.  He also hosts ThisWeekInStartups.com, a weekly online tv show featuring interviews with web entrepreneurs. But he also plays poker. So he invited professional poker player Annie Duke onto the show for a special poker-centric episode. (Annie is also the founder of a couple of companies). A portion of the interview resonated with what I know of the Black Swan and it was very satisfying to even hear this sort of language being used in conversation outside of an NNT talk.

Listen: TWiST-30-Jason-Calacanis-Annie-Duke

Notes:
skill vs luck axis
luck side = social side, things in the world
skill side = private side
result
win/loss
privatize good results
socialize bad results, i.e. blaming luck
But
Sometimes when you lose you played well.
Sometimes when you lose you played poorly.
Sometimes when you win you played well.
Sometimes when you win you played poorly.

Have to examine performance, in retrospect, in order improve results.

Two of those quadrants you have no control over.
So you might as well focus on the ones you do have control over.

Tilt in poker = Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive.

Controlling tilt.
When we look at the result (of a hand), ask yourself one question first- Was the result in my control?
If the answer is no, then why do you care? (Why let it impact you emotionally.)
If you didn’t do anything wrong, if your decision processes are good,  Why get upset?