Life is Poker, Not Chess

Life is poker, not chess
Four years ago I walked away from a guaranteed promotion at McKinsey and a $300K PE offer to work in gaming for a third of the salary.
Many thought I was insane. They were playing chess: calculating the optimal move with perfect information. https://t.co/g5VHm1a12b
The world contains more uncertainty than we're comfortable acknowledging. We want to believe that if we just think hard enough, gather enough information, and make the right choice, we can ensure success. We want to believe that good decision-making guarantees good outcomes. But it doesn't. Sometimes you make the best possible choice given the
... See moreJoan Westenberg • Life Isn't Chess. It's Poker.
In fact, decisions are rarely 100 percent right or wrong. Life isn’t like that. Life is like poker, a game of incomplete information – since you never know what cards the other players are holding – and luck. Our decision-making is like poker players’ bets. We bet on future outcomes based on what we believe is most likely to occur.