We will end our week on Mastermind taking a quote from Maria Konnikova’s Wharton Moneyball podcast. When asked if there’s a better way to play poker, to play the person more or to play the probabilities more, Maria said this:

"I don't think there's an answer, it depends on who you are and leveraging what you are good at. If want to become good, you need to have both, you can't be uni-focused on the math or the psychology. There are people who say, 'the math is bullshit, I play the person'. There are also some people who say, 'I don't care about the psychology crap, I'm going to play the numbers'. But the best players know that it's both and that you have to combine both. Now, what combination depends  on the player. You need to know yourself and play to your strengths." 

There are two approaches to finding your spot: hard work and effectiveness.

Hard work depends on some quantity of interesting, ability, progress, external motivation, and internal drive. I’ve never learned to play the guitar because this mix isn’t high enough for me to learn.

Effectiveness depends on the s-curve of learning. This is why it’s often much easier to fix a weakness than to improve a strength. Many skills in life are slow going at first, followed by rapid learning, and then a long slog of mastery.

Our lesson from Maria is to find the important skills, and chip away at those.