September 24, 2019

Analytics & Intuition / Liv Boeree, Professional Poker Player

58 minutes

“A lot of people often think of rationality as actually about removing your emotions entirely, but I disagree with that because emotions are what ultimately make us human...To be truly rational, we have to learn to work with our emotions— not completely eradicate them.’” -Liv Boeree

My guest this week is Liv Boeree— a magnificent thinker, writer, and speaker. Liv is one of the most successful professional poker players of all time (she is the only woman in history to win both the World Series of Poker and European Poker Tour Championships). On top of all that, she also just happens to have a degree in astrophysics. She’s an all around fantastic person to have a conversation with, and was particularly great at answering this week’s question from Kent Wilson from Nashville, Tennessee.

Kent asked, “When does data-backed decision making begin to have a negative impact on the creative process?” Liv and I get into a great discussion on what constitutes analytical thinking, what the difference is between science and art, and how to listen to your intuition and balance that with data, and logic with reason. So much of creativity nowadays is further and further integrated with data and analytics, and Liv has some great insight on when data is valuable and when you should just go with your gut.

If you have a question about the creative process, that you think would spawn a good conversation on this show, ask me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter tagged #creativeprocessing, or by emailing [email protected]. New episodes are coming out every Tuesday through October 22, 2019.

------

ABOUT THE GUESTS:

Liv Boeree is one of the UK’s most successful poker players winning both a European Poker Tour and World Series of Poker championship title during her professional career. Before poker she studied Astrophysics, she now focuses her time as a TV host and YouTuber specialising in science, futurism and rationality. She also gives seminars on decision strategy and recently spoke at the annual TED conference about the application of poker thinking to everyday life.

In 2014 she co-founded Raising for Effective Giving (REG), a non-profit that promotes a scientific, evidence-based approach to philanthropy known as effective altruism. To date, REG has raised over $11,000,000 for a handful of the most globally impactful and cost-effective charities.

------

SELECTED LINKS FOR EPISODE:

Connect with Liv:

- Twitter: @Liv_Boeree

- Instagram: @Liv_Boeree

- YouTube Channel

- LivBoeree.com

- Raise for Effective Giving

Theories Mentioned:

- Game Theory

- Scientific Method

- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs