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mary_soon_lee 's review for:
The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
by Maria Konnikova
In 2016, Maria Konnikova set out to learn poker as a means to learn skills she could apply much more generally, such as how to cope with good and bad luck. She succeeded in persuading a preeminent poker player (Erik Seidel) to mentor her. This book describes what happened, alongside a slew of accompanying remarks on human psychology. I found it a diverting but not fully satisfying mix. I think I would have preferred either straight memoir, or else greater detail on such things as the description-experience gap, the sunk-cost fallacy, and thin-slice judgments.
The author reaches for insights learned in poker that can be applied to life, her own or the reader's. At times, this was a little grating. At other times, her comments resonated well. Two such comments that I particularly liked were a quote from W. H. Auden:
and the author speaking about herself:
(As a final note: I'm fond of chapter numbers, whether accompanied by chapter titles or standing alone. I missed them.)
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
The author reaches for insights learned in poker that can be applied to life, her own or the reader's. At times, this was a little grating. At other times, her comments resonated well. Two such comments that I particularly liked were a quote from W. H. Auden:
"Choice of attention--to pay attention to this and ignore that--is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences."
-- from the chapter titled Texting Your Way out of Millions
and the author speaking about herself:
"I don't have the guts because I'm afraid--still--of looking stupid, of making mistakes, of being judged and judging myself."
-- from the chapter Full Tilt
(As a final note: I'm fond of chapter numbers, whether accompanied by chapter titles or standing alone. I missed them.)
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).