102 | Maria Konnikova on Poker, Psychology, and Reason

<p>The best chess and Go players in the world aren’t human beings any more; they’re artificially-intelligent computer programs. But the best poker players are still humans. Poker is a laboratory for understanding how rationality works in real-world situations: it features stochastic events, incomplete information, Bayesian updating, game theory, reading other people, a battle between emotions and reason, and real-world stakes. Maria Konnikova started in psychology, turned to writing, and then took up professional-level poker, and has learned a lot along the way about the challenges of being rational. We talk about what games like poker can teach us about thinking and human psychology.</p><p><em>Support Mindscape on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>Maria Konnikova received her Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. She is currently a contributing writer for&nbsp;<em>The New Yorker</em>. She is the author of two bestselling books,&nbsp;<em>The Confidence Game</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes</em>. Among her awards are the 2019 Excellence in Science Journalism Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. She is a successful tournament poker player and Ambassador for PokerStars. She is the host of&nbsp;<em>The Grift</em>&nbsp;podcast. Her new book is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Biggest-Bluff-Learned-Attention-Master/dp/052552262X/smcarroll-20" target="_blank"><em>The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win.</em></a></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.mariakonnikova.com/" target="_blank">Web site</a></li><li><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/maria-konnikova" target="_blank">Articles at&nbsp;<em>The New Yorker</em></a></li><li><a href="http://thegriftpodcast.com/" target="_blank">The Grift podcast</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Maria-Konnikova/e/B008ESXWU0%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share" target="_blank">Amazon auth