A few years ago, Maria Konnikova took a leave from her job as a psychology journalist at The New Yorker to try something new: become a professional poker player. Hoping merely for a good story to write about, she stunned everyone -- including herself -- with her accelerated mastery of the game, winning big tournaments and earning hundreds of thousands of dollars within just the first couple of years. Maria joins Cardiff to discuss what she learned in the process about her own psychological makeup, her capacity for change, and how we can all take lessons from poker to make better decisions. It’s the subject of her latest book, The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, And Win, which is now available in paperback.

Links from the episode:

• Maria Konnikova is on Twitter at @mkonnikova
• Maria’s book, The Biggest Bluff (https://tinyurl.com/kexnvd4n)
• “Remembering Walter Mischel, with Love and Procrastination” in The New Yorker (https://tinyurl.com/zrbae2xx)
• Maria’s writing in The New Yorker (https://tinyurl.com/y8n88yy8)
• Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane
• Send us an email! You can write to us at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.