Books We're Reading: The Biggest Bluff

How much of what happens in our lives is due to chance versus skill? This is the question Maria Konnikova sets out to answer in her recent book, The Biggest Bluff: How to Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win. The book chronicles Konnikova’s real-life journey to “conquer the poker world” and dig into the tension between luck and control. Konnikova, a writer with a Ph.D. in psychology, has spent much of her career studying human behavior, with a special focus on decision making. Her background gives her an unique approach to poker, and invites the discovery of many insightful life lessons along the way. 

There are interesting parallels to be drawn between Konnikova’s journey and that of a runner. As the selection for our current Winter Running Group’s book club, the book invites us to think about our relationship with control as runners, what we can learn from failure, and how we make decisions about our training. One such example was inspired by Konnikova’s Ph.D. work studying a person’s decision-making after significant or traumatic life events. She found that after living through a negative event, people are more likely to be extremely cautious - too much so - when faced with similar or related decisions. In contrast, those who did not live through the negative event are more likely not to be cautious or to not even acknowledge the potential risks. When we think about injuries as runners, the same may ring true: When we have never suffered a significant injury, we are more likely to push through pain or train too much or skip strength sessions because we’ve never suffered the likely consequence - injury. Those who have been injured are likely to be more diligent about the supplemental work, and also to be much more cautious - potentially to the detriment of their training - once back to running. In these instances, the person does not have a balanced view of luck and control, and their running potential may limited because of it. 

While the tales of Konnikova’s study of poker and her big winnings are intriguing and entertaining, the book’s greatest value is in the lessons Konnikova learns about herself throughout the process. Through the poker lens, Konnikova shares thought-provoking perspective and offers a window into the many layered, complex challenge of understanding ourselves and the our approach to decisions big and small. If you’re looking for an engaging book that will make you sit back, reflect, and think, The Biggest Bluff is a worthy read.