Annie Duke is a master of decision making. As a former professional poker player, she knows a thing or two about weighing probabilities, reading people, and making calculated risks. But Duke isn’t just a master of decision making at the poker table. On a recent Provocateurs podcast, hosted by Stuart Crainer of Thinkers50 and Steve Goldbach of Deloitte, she challenged listeners to examine their own biases and self-narratives in order to make better choices in all aspects of life.
Duke’s approach to decision making revolves around focusing on the things we can control. In the podcast, she discussed the concept of “resulting,” which is the tendency to judge decisions based on the outcomes they produce, rather than the quality of the decision-making process itself. This can lead to overconfidence in good outcomes and self-doubt in bad outcomes, which can cloud our judgement and cause us to make poor decisions in the future.
To combat this, Duke recommends focusing solely on the decision-making process and the factors that were under our control at the time. By doing so, we can evaluate the quality of our decision making without being swayed by external factors or outcomes. This can help us to improve our decision making in the long run, even when we experience short-term setbacks or failures.
Another key lesson from Duke’s approach to decision making is the importance of understanding and identifying our own biases. She cites several examples of cognitive biases that can affect our decision making, such as confirmation bias (the tendency to seek out information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs) and the sunk cost fallacy (the tendency to persist in a course of action even when it no longer makes logical sense, simply because we have already invested time, money, or effort into it).
To overcome these biases, Duke recommends actively seeking out evidence or viewpoints that challenge our own beliefs, and taking time to reflect on the true costs and benefits of a decision. By doing so, we can make decisions that are truly objective and based on the available evidence, rather than being clouded by our own biases and self-narratives.
Overall, Annie Duke’s approach to decision making is one that is grounded in logic, self-reflection, and a willingness to challenge our own biases. By focusing on the things we can control and taking an objective approach to decision making, we can become more effective decision makers in all areas of our lives. Whether we’re playing poker or making important life decisions, her advice is a valuable reminder of the importance of self-awareness and critical thinking.
Transformation! 