In a bonus episode of the GRID, Jennifer brings in her friend, best-selling author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz to talk about his new book, “Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data To get What You Really Want in Life.”. Seth is also the author of “Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are” and an amateur poker player. He has familial ties to the professional game: his brother Noah was a poker pro and journalist (of Subject: Poker) in the boom days.
Seth talks about his own poker game, and how the concept of range helped him understand how rare it is to pin people down to a specific hand. He also talks about a recent trip to Las Vegas, which made him realize that advanced poker strategies like mixing, are often inapplicable to tipsy Saturday night cash games. He extrapolates that to life, questioning whether we sometimes over-complicate our quest to get what we want.
Seth and Jennifer talk about the role of luck in poker and life, and the importance of getting lots of volume in, whether from a poker player, an artist looking to get exposure for their work or even in the dating pool.
They also talk about Seth’s work on data and happiness, and how poker might rank among other top activities, like sex, 80 degree weather, and proximity to nature.
Related Links:
Jennifer’s WSJ article on secondary infertility and poker
Interview with Seth’s brother Noah on Game Integrity
