13 Habits of Highly Effective Risk Takers

I played professional poker before I ever wrote about politics or created an election model.What really appeals to me about gambling is the mindset that drives this behavior. the mindset that unites a group I call The River.

The river is a sprawling ecosystem of like-minded people that includes everyone from low-stakes poker pros to crypto kings and VC billionaires. It is a mindset: analytical, abstract, competitive, adversarial, and a way of life. Most “Riverians” are not rich and powerful, but rich and powerful people are disproportionately likely to be river dwellers.

I call the following “The 13 Habits of Highly Effective Risk Takers.” Quantitative risk takers and physical risk takers—astronauts, deep sea explorers, NFL players—have these traits take risks and argue successfully, there is something about it.How many of them do you share?

Successful risk takers are cool under pressure

Being calm when other people lose their cool is a rare quality and an essential quality for a winning addict. No matter how well you perform in everyday situations, you’ll never reach the top of your craft if you choke when the pressure is on. :

They have Courage

In poker and sports betting, the vast majority of players lose money.Being on top requires careful balance.Overconfidence can be fatal in gambling, but playing poker against the best is not for the faint of heart.

They have strategic empathy

They put themselves in their opponent’s shoes, but don’t confuse this with emotional empathy. In psychological studies, there is a negative correlation between systematic thinking, which Rivers are good at, and empathetic behavior. Strategic empathy comes up a lot in poker, which is both mathematical and human it’s a game.

They are process oriented, not results oriented

They play the long game. “Don’t be results oriented” is a mantra that is ingrained in many poker players. is one of the objective measures.

They shoot

They are well aware of the risks they are taking, and they are apt to fail in one episode of the American version The officeCharming boss Michael Scott appropriates a quote from hockey player Wayne Gretzky. There is something to be said for this.

They have a lifting or folding attitude

They hate mediocrity and know when to quit. The main fault in poker is that most players keep it. There are three main actions in poker: call, fold, raise. They press the button too much call because they want to gamble, but while players call when they should fold, they also call when they should raise.

They Are Prepared

They make good intuitive decisions because they are well prepared, not because they “wing it.” As private equity investor and researcher Victor Vescovo raved about Top Gun: Maverick Tom Cruise claimed that you have to improvise to get out of a hairy situation; No one was ever at risk,” he said. “You want to minimize the risks Top Gun: It looked great on film, it’s not like you’d try to remove that target.”

They pay great attention to detail

They understand that attention is a scarce resource. One of the unusual features of the game of poker is that most of the time you have nothing to do, just a lot of waiting.

They are adaptable

They are good generalists, taking advantage of new opportunities and responding to new threats. I call this personality type a fox. Think of the words of the Greek poet Archilochus. “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Foxes look for opportunities, being wary of complacency and being too attached. This is a habit to which there are few exceptions. In particular, startup founders must be laser-focused on one big thing and ready to see it through for a decade or more.

They are good evaluators

They are Bayesians who are comfortable quantifying their intuition and working with incomplete information.Does the difference between 90 percent and 93 percent really matter?

They try to stand out, not fit in

Independence of thought and purpose are hallmarks of high achievers.

They are consciously opposed

They have theories about why and when the conventional wisdom is wrong. There is a difference between independence and opposition. If I choose vanilla and you like chocolate more, you are independent you choose chocolate because i took vanilla you contradict. Riverians can be accused of being conflicted when they are really independent. If I do the usual thing 99 percent of the time, what about you? do it 85 percent of the time, you’ll look like a rebel in comparison, but in reality you’re still going with the flow.

They are not driven by money

They are not ascetics, but poker players are different for two reasons: First, they are so fiercely competitive that money serves mainly as a means of keeping score; and second, gambling for such high stakes requires some desensitization to them.

Adapted Ezrin. The art of risking everything, By Nate Silver.