Thinking In Bets For Better Decision Making | How Prediction Markets Might Help Your Brain

The mindset of a poker pro can now be applied outside of a narrow game.

In Episode #517 of 'Meanderings', Juan & I discuss: Annie Duke’s 'Thinking In Bets' book and how the poker mindset can reshape everyday decision-making, why focusing on process over outcomes matters,  how using AI as a sounding board revealed hidden risk-taking in my own finances, testing assumptions in small experiments before going all-in, how arbitrage opportunities appear with prediction markets and why clarity on desired outcomes should drive bet-sizing.

No support for this week so no beanie either. Also my laptop died suddenly hence the rather curt cut off at the end. Luckily we were almost done anyway phew.

Stan Link: https://stan.store/meremortals

Timeline:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:03:22) Outcome vs process: luck, good decisions, and post mortems
(00:09:16) Poker as repeated high impact decisions and learning while folding
(00:12:45) Symmetry, asymmetry, and spotting obviously bad bets
(00:18:34) Focus on decision quality, not results: lessons from early poker hands
(00:23:34) Plans that fail from wrong models: refining sell strategies
(00:28:15) Designing a simple, robust framework: time, percentage, and mean reversion
(00:31:28) Support break and playful side bets (brief interlude)
(00:31:59) Defining enough: goals, asymmetry, and chasing deltas
(00:35:18) Context is king: life design vs maximising returns
(00:38:56) Lifestyle upgrades vs status buys
(00:42:39) Comparing lives you don't want
(00:45:14) Test your dreams: mini retirements and truth over fantasy
(00:48:25) Prediction markets 101: from politics to Eurovision
(00:51:08) Arbitrage basics: finding edge across bookmakers
(00:56:24) Overconfidence, Dunning Kruger and too much information
(01:01:02) Avoiding tilt: energy, time, and knowing when to walk away
(01:03:27) AI flights of fancy: unified physics and healthy scepticism
(01:05:01) Wrap up: from thinking in bets to betting on ideas 

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