Risk Schmisk | Annie Duke | TEDxGeorgetown

TEDx Talks
14 Mar 201616:40

Summary

TLDR本视频讲述了一位从认知科学博士转为职业扑克玩家的女性,她通过自己的经历探讨了扑克与风险管理之间的关系。她指出,扑克是一种在不确定性条件下进行决策的游戏,与游戏理论的定义相吻合。她解释了期望值、波动性和风险管理的概念,并通过与金融交易专家的对话,揭示了人们倾向于将失败归咎于风险管理而非自身策略的问题。视频最后以E.B.怀特的名言结束,强调了成功人士往往不谈论运气,而是依赖于自己的决策和策略。

Takeaways

  • 🎓 演讲者原本在宾夕法尼亚大学攻读认知科学博士学位,后因失去奖学金而转行成为职业扑克玩家。
  • 🃏 扑克是一种在不确定性条件下的决策游戏,与博弈论的定义相同,因为博弈论是基于扑克游戏发展起来的。
  • 🧠 认知科学与扑克中的决策过程有紧密联系,扑克玩家在面对不确定性时需要做出决策。
  • 💡 风险是扑克中不可或缺的一部分,玩家需要考虑风险和不确定性,以及如何管理风险。
  • 🔢 期望值是评估事件长期理论净收益的概念,通过具体例子解释了期望值的计算方法。
  • 📊 波动性是衡量结果围绕期望值变化的概念,它与运气有关,扑克玩家需要考虑波动性来管理风险。
  • 💰 风险管理是评估投资与总资源比例的过程,目的是最大化实现预期收益的可能性,同时避免破产。
  • 🤔 人们倾向于将成功归因于自己的决策,而将失败归咎于运气,这是一种自我服务偏差。
  • 🕵️‍♂️ 风险管理常被用作避免面对失败策略的借口,人们不愿意承认自己的策略可能是错误的。
  • 📉 即使是在失败时,人们也倾向于将原因归咎于风险管理不当,而非策略本身的问题。
  • 📚 演讲者提到了多位学者的研究,包括Roy Baumeister关于自我欺骗的研究,以及Gary Marcus和Dan Kahan关于动机推理的研究。
  • 📖 EB White的名言提醒我们,成功人士通常不会将成功归因于运气。

Q & A

  • 视频中提到的演讲者最初是做什么的?

    -视频中的演讲者最初是在宾夕法尼亚大学的认知科学博士项目中学习,拥有国家科学基金会的奖学金,并计划成为一名教授。

  • 演讲者为何开始玩扑克?

    -演讲者在学术生涯的休息期间,因为失去了奖学金,需要赚钱支付租金,她的兄弟建议她尝试玩扑克来赚钱。

  • 演讲者在扑克领域取得了哪些成就?

    -演讲者在扑克领域取得了相当的成功,包括赢得了世界扑克大赛的手镯和锦标赛冠军。

  • 为什么演讲者认为扑克和认知科学有关联?

    -因为扑克是一种在不确定性条件下随时间进行决策的游戏,这与游戏理论的定义相同,而游戏理论是基于扑克由约翰·冯·诺伊曼提出的。

  • 什么是期望值,演讲者如何用它来解释扑克?

    -期望值是给定事件随时间的理论上的净正或负值。演讲者用2004年的冠军赛作为例子,解释了即使所有参赛者技能相等,每个人的期望值也是赢得200万美元的10%。

  • 演讲者如何解释风险和不确定性?

    -演讲者通过解释硬币翻转的例子来阐述风险和不确定性,说明了即使有正的期望值,也不能保证每次都会赢。

  • 什么是风险管理,演讲者如何解释它的重要性?

    -风险管理是关于你如何在事件上下注或投资,与你拥有的总资源成比例,以最大化实现你应有的收益。演讲者强调了风险管理的重要性,以避免在实现预期收益之前破产。

  • 演讲者提到了Jeff Koz,他是谁,为什么他的观点很重要?

    -Jeff Koz是Susquehanna International Group的创始人,这是一个大型的量化交易公司。他的观点很重要,因为他有超过30年的风险管理经验,并且他认为最大的风险是拥有一个失败的策略,却误以为是成功的。

  • 演讲者如何解释自我服务偏差(self-serving bias)?

    -自我服务偏差是一种认知偏差,人们倾向于将好的结果归因于自己的决策,而将坏的结果归因于运气或风险管理。这种偏差有助于人们保持积极的自我形象。

  • 演讲者提到的Phil Hellmuth是谁,他的言论如何体现了自我服务偏差?

    -Phil Hellmuth是一位非常著名的扑克玩家,被称为扑克小子。他的言论'如果不是因为运气,我会赢得每一次比赛'体现了自我服务偏差,因为他将失败归因于运气,而不是自己的决策。

  • 演讲者如何总结对风险的误解?

    -演讲者总结说,人们倾向于使用风险作为一个方便的借口,来避免审视自己是否真正拥有成功的策略,这是一种动机推理,人们只关注确认自己信念的证据,而忽视反驳的证据。

  • 演讲者引用了EB White的话,这句话是什么意思?

    -EB White的话意味着运气不是那些自力更生的人会谈论的东西,这强调了成功更多地依赖于个人的努力和策略,而不是运气。

Outlines

00:00

🎓 从认知科学到扑克:风险与决策的融合

本段讲述了演讲者从认知科学博士项目转向扑克生涯的个人经历。她原计划成为教授,但因失去奖学金而面临经济压力。在兄弟的建议下,她开始接触扑克,并在20年的职业生涯中取得了显著成就,包括赢得世界扑克系列赛的冠军。她发现扑克与认知科学之间存在联系,尤其是在决策制定方面,这与游戏理论的定义不谋而合。演讲者强调了风险和不确定性在扑克中的重要性,并提出了风险管理的概念。

05:00

🃏 扑克与风险管理:理论与实践

演讲者深入探讨了风险管理的理论与实践,首先解释了期望值的概念,并通过2004年的一场扑克锦标赛来具体说明。她讨论了波动性和运气的概念,强调了在不确定性中做出决策的重要性。接着,她通过与Jeff Koz的对话,引出了一个核心观点:最大的风险是认为自己拥有一个获胜策略,而实际上可能是失败的。这强调了在不确定性世界中做出决策的复杂性。

10:04

🤔 自我服务偏差与风险归因

本段讨论了人们如何处理好结果和坏结果的心理现象,即自我服务偏差。人们倾向于将成功归因于自己的决策,而将失败归咎于运气或其他外部因素。演讲者通过扑克玩家Phil Hellmuth的例子,展示了这种偏差如何影响我们对风险的看法。她指出,当人们面临失败时,他们更倾向于将其归咎于风险管理不当,而不是质疑自己的策略是否有效,这是一种避免面对失败的心理机制。

15:08

🧐 风险误解与动机推理

演讲者总结了人们对风险的误解,以及如何通过动机推理来维持自我形象。她引用了Jeff Yost的观点,强调了风险管理的误区,并指出人们往往不愿意深入探讨自己是否有一个获胜策略,因为这会挑战他们自我感觉良好的信念。演讲者用EB White的名言作为结尾,强调了在成功人士面前,运气不应该被提及,这反映了人们倾向于忽视运气在成功中的作用,而过分强调个人能力。

Mindmap

Keywords

💡风险管理

风险管理是指在面对不确定性时如何做出决策的过程。它与视频主题紧密相关,因为整个演讲都在讨论如何理解和管理风险。例如,演讲者提到扑克玩家在玩扑克时需要考虑风险管理,以确保他们不会在赢得预期收益之前破产。

💡期望值

期望值是一个理论上的数值,用来表示在长时间内某一事件发生的净正或负值的平均。视频中,演讲者通过扑克比赛的例子来解释期望值的概念,说明了即使在技能相当的情况下,每个玩家赢得比赛的概率和期望收益的计算方式。

💡不确定性

不确定性是指在决策过程中存在的未知因素,它与风险密切相关。视频中强调了不确定性是扑克和现实生活中决策的一部分,演讲者讨论了如何通过考虑不确定性来做出更好的决策。

💡波动性

波动性描述的是围绕期望值的变异程度,它与运气有关,反映了结果的不可预测性。在视频中,演讲者通过抛硬币的例子来解释波动性,展示了在多次尝试中可能出现的不同结果及其分布。

💡自我服务偏差

自我服务偏差是一种心理现象,指的是个体倾向于将好的结果归因于自己的能力或决策,而将坏的结果归咎于外部因素,如运气。视频中提到了这种现象,并用扑克玩家Phil Hellmuth的例子来说明人们如何使用自我服务偏差来维护自我形象。

💡认知偏差

认知偏差是影响我们思考和决策的心理误差。视频中讨论了多种认知偏差,如自我服务偏差和动机推理,这些偏差可能导致我们对风险的误解和管理不当。

💡动机推理

动机推理是一种认知偏差,我们倾向于寻找和信任那些支持我们现有信念的信息,同时忽视或贬低与之相矛盾的证据。视频中,演讲者用这个概念来解释人们如何避免面对自己可能拥有失败策略的现实。

💡扑克

扑克是一种需要在不确定性条件下进行决策的游戏。视频中,演讲者通过自己的扑克生涯来探讨决策、风险和不确定性之间的关系,以及如何从扑克中学习风险管理。

💡运气

运气是指在决策和结果中不可控的随机因素。视频中,演讲者讨论了运气在扑克和其他决策过程中的作用,以及人们如何倾向于将不利的结果归咎于运气。

💡自我形象

自我形象是个体对自己的看法和评价。视频中,演讲者提到人们倾向于维护积极的自我形象,这可能导致他们错误地认为自己拥有成功的策略,即使实际上可能并非如此。

💡风险误解

风险误解是指人们对风险的错误理解和评估。视频中,演讲者强调了人们如何通过将失败归咎于风险管理而不是策略本身,来避免面对可能存在的策略问题。

Highlights

从扑克中学习风险管理:演讲者结合扑克经验和认知科学背景探讨风险管理。

风险管理的核心是期望值:期望值是某事件长期的理论净收益或亏损。

风险与不确定性:扑克是一种在不确定条件下进行决策的游戏,反映了现实生活中的风险管理。

波动性和运气:波动性是围绕期望值的变动,体现了运气在决策中的作用。

风险管理的重要性:如何根据自身资源和风险承受能力进行投资或投注,以避免破产。

专家访谈:Susquehanna International Group创始人Jeff Koz强调最大风险是误以为自己的策略是赢家。

自我欺骗与认知偏见:人们倾向于将好结果归因于决策好,将坏结果归因于运气或风险管理不善。

动机性推理:人们倾向于忽视与自己信念相悖的证据,从而维护自我形象。

扑克中的决策和风险管理:演讲者分享了自己在扑克中如何运用认知科学原理进行决策和管理风险。

风险管理与创业:创业者常将失败归因于资本不足而非策略错误,这与扑克玩家类似。

2009年金融危机教训:银行在金融危机后强调风险管理失败,而非承认其策略失败。

动机性推理的研究:Gary Marcus和Dan Kahan的研究揭示了动机性推理如何影响决策。

确认偏见:人们倾向于关注支持自己信念的证据,而忽视或否认相反的证据。

著名扑克玩家Phil Hellmuth的言论:他认为如果没有运气,他将赢得所有比赛,这反映了自我服务偏见。

EB White的名言:自我奋斗者不愿承认运气的重要性,这与人们的自我形象维护有关。

Transcripts

play00:03

you

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hello so I'm gonna talk to you a little

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bit about what we can learn about poker

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or from poker about risk so a little bit

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about myself I started off my life I

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guess well not my life but my adult life

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studying cognitive science at University

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of Pennsylvania in their ph.d program I

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had a National Science Foundation

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fellowship and was on my way to a life

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in academics being a professor hopefully

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at a place like this uh and right at the

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end I decided to take a little bit of

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time off and during that time off I

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figured out that when you lose your

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fellowship you need to make some money

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which is a little bit of reality I have

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rent to pay and nobody's giving me any

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money now so my brother who at the time

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was already a professional poker player

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suggested to me that I might want to

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play poker and at the time I had moved

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to Montana with my then husband and

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there was turned out a poker game about

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3035 minutes away in Billings Montana

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and he said well why don't you go there

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I'll send you a little bit of money and

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you can see how you do at it so I

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thought well that's a good thing to do

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in the meantime while I'm trying to sort

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of figure out what am I going to do now

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that I'm done studying do I actually

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want to become a professor and I like to

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say that the meantime turned into 20

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years I feel like I'm still a little bit

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in the meantime and I'm sure that a

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career in poker is exactly what the

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National fundation Science Foundation

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had in mind for me but anyway I did that

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for twenty years I did you know pretty

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well I won a World Series of Poker

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bracelet tournament champion some other

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things but I realized pretty quickly as

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I was doing that that there was a big

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merging of what I had studied in

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cognitive science with sort of the

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exercise and decision-making that was

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happening when I was playing poker and

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that's because of this definition of

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Poker poker is a game of decision-making

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under conditions of uncertainty over

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time that happens to be the same

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definition of game theory which isn't

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coincidental because game theory was

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based on the game of poker by a guy

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named John von Neumann I so if you look

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at the behavior of people who poked at

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the poker table you can actually learn a

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lot about human

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decision-making so when I got asked to

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talk about risk I thought well this is

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really exciting because risk is built

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into the definition it's the uncertainty

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piece and uncertainty it's actually

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something that poker players think about

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a lot we think about risk we think about

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uncertainty lock skill how to manage

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risk so I thought AHA that's what I'm

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going to talk to you about today now

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that I've been asked to talk about risk

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and to talk about risk management so in

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order to do that I've got to get a few

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definitional things aside so hopefully

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you'll bear with me so the first thing

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is we have to understand in order to

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understand risk what expected value is

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expected value is the theoretical net

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positive or negative of a given event

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over time so let me give you a concrete

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example so here's a simple expected

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value of calculation in 2004 I played in

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the tournament of champions that was a

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winner-take-all two million dollar prize

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event there were ten of us in the

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tournament so if you assume we were all

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of equal skill which is a bad assumption

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there were lots of people who are much

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better than me and that then each of us

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would win the tournament ten percent of

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the time because there's ten of us so my

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expected value would have been $200,000

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we all couldn't think about a coin flip

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so heads and tails are 50/50 so let's

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say that I were to flip with one of you

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in the audience and I said if you call

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it right I'm gonna give you $20 and if

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you call it wrong you have to give me

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ten that's a net positive of ten dollars

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for you when you win versus you lose but

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you're only going to win at half the

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time so we have to multiply that by a

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half so your expected value is five

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dollars a flip but that's a theoretical

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number because obviously if you're

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winning twenty when you win and you're

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losing ten when you lose you never

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actually get handed five dollars that's

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just the theoretical value of each flip

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and that brings us to the next thing

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when we think about risk which is

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volatility which leads to the concept of

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luck which is how much variation there

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is around this expected value the

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theoretical earns so I can give you a

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picture of that so this is for a coin

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flip what you can see is out here at

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what we call the tails the edges are

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sort of very unlikely events so if you

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flip a coin ten times

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it's very rare that you'll have zero

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heads and very rare obviously equally

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weird that you'll have ten heads and

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mostly you're gonna have five heads and

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five tails but that's just going to be

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the average result and on any given time

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while I can tell you the probability

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that you'll have five heads or four

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heads or three heads or two heads or one

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head we don't actually know for that

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given time right so we're living in this

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uncertain world where we have an idea of

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what the average is but we don't know

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what it's going to be on a given time so

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what that distribution looks like tells

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us what the variation around that

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central value is right so that poker

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players have to think about that a lot

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so that brings us to the idea of rich

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risk management which is and where you

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ask yourself how much did you bet on or

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invest in an event proportional to the

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total resources you have because you're

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trying to maximize the probability that

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you realize this amount of money that

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you're supposed to make so your five

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dollars on a coin flip but you want to

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do it before you go broke right so you

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can imagine even if you're making five

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dollars every coin flip because I'm

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giving you $20 for every ten dollars you

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lose you wouldn't want to bet all the

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money you have in the world on one coin

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flip because half the time you would

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just go broke so we think about you know

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what's our tolerance for going broke and

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then we can do these calculations of

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what percentage of the total resources I

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have for a poker player that would be

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money can I bet and really make sure

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that I'm not gonna go broke before I

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actually realize what I'm supposed to

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win so I thought if I'm gonna talk about

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risk management I should probably go

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myself talk to someone who I know is a

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expert in this so I went and talked to

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this guy Jeff Koz he's the founder of

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Susquehanna International Group which is

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a very large quantitative trading firm

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in financial markets he's been doing

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this really successfully since the early

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80s so I figured here's a guy who's been

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managing risk for you know over 30 years

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and he probably has a lot to say about

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it that would be very helpful as I'm

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coming to talk to you guys about risk

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so I said Jeff I want to talk to you

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about risk and I want to talk to you

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about risk management and his response

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was risk misc

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I thought well that's not very helpful I

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really wasn't expecting him to say that

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but he followed it with this the biggest

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risk you have is that you have a losing

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strategy when you think you have a

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winning one and I realized oh this guy

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really doesn't know what he's talking

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about and what he just said is actually

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very very deep because here's the

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fundamental problem that we all face is

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we're out making decisions in this world

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we live in an ambiguous world right

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things are uncertain pretty much

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everything that we engage in has

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uncertainty even things you think aren't

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particularly uncertain even things you

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think don't really have risk so I like

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to talk about you know if you take a

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shower there's actually quite a bit of

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risk in that not as much as there used

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to be but when I was growing up all the

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plumbing was connected so if someone in

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the house flushed the toilet scalding

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hot water would come down on you and

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burn you but you didn't have any control

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over that right so there was a little

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bit of risk involved in that right some

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things have a lot of risk involved in

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them but everything has a little bit of

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risk involved in them we live in this

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ambiguous world where there's kind of

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this combination of luck right stuff

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that kind of happens that you don't have

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a lot of control over and skill things

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that you actually have control over your

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own decision-making right and here's the

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second part of the problem we all want

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to think we're awesome

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so here's this thing right we all want

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to think that we're great at what we do

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we all want to think we're really good

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decision-makers and we're super smart

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and we're smarter than other people and

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we're gonna succeed more than other

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people and we have a winning strategy

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because we want we have this drive to

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constantly be updating our self-image in

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a positive way why do we do that well

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actually there's some great work that's

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been done in psychology on this I highly

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recommend you look at the work of Roy

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Baumeister who you might have heard he

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does a lot of the work on willpower

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that's become very popular about

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willpower being a muscle but he also did

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some work in this particular area about

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why do we self-deluded we're awesome and

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it turns out that we do better in the

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gene pool if we are actually delusional

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about how great we are when we

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for that a confident image to other

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people we do better in terms of the mate

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that we can actually get so this seems

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to be very wired in to the way we think

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so we really always want to be avoiding

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any kind of negative update to our

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self-image and seeking out positive

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updates to our self-image so that brings

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me to this guy this guy's a guy named

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Phil Hellmuth

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he's a very very very famous poker

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player he's known as the poker brat

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there's a lot of World Championships in

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one day on TV he gave me the greatest

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gift ever by saying if it weren't for

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luck I'd win every one now obviously

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what he's saying is if there weren't

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this uncertainty my decision-making is

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so great and I'm so better than

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everybody else at the decisions that I

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make at the poker table that no one else

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would ever be able to win a game so

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whenever I lose because I got unlucky

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now he happened to have said that out

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loud but the fact is that most of us

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think that pretty much all of the time

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and what you see is this pattern in

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terms of how we deal with good outcomes

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and bad outcomes right how do we deal

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when we win versus when we lose and we

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have this pattern it turns out that we

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attribute our good outcomes to good

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decisions right so poker players say wow

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I played really well that's why I won

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and it turns out do we do the opposite

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when we have bad outcomes and we

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attribute it to bad luck man I can't

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believe this I got so unlucky and this

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is incredibly robust as a phenomenon in

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fact it's called the self-serving bias

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it's pretty well studied

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there's some good work actually someone

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forwarded to Mussina by Rob McHale but

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but this was originally worked on I

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think by Nesbitt and I I know that I see

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this all over the place so I have

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teenagers and my teenage son as far as I

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can tell has never come home with a see

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where it wasn't the teachers fault

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because the test was way too hard and in

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fact the teacher actually picks them out

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because he specifically doesn't like him

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and if I have any doubts about that I

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just have to go ask everybody in his

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class

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but strangely enough whenever he gets an

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A he did great on the test because he

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studied so hard and he wrote the world's

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best essay and we can see this in terms

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of people's promotions right like you

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never see someone get up who doesn't get

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a promotion where it was ever their

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fault it's always that the other guys

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lose the boss right so I can imagine

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that you can think of lots and lots of

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examples of this particular pattern I'm

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sure not in any of you but in your

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friends so what's happening here is this

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idea of uncertainty which is really

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where risk stems from it's allowing us

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an excuse to kind of ignore the bad

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outcomes in our life right what we do is

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we're always trying because the world is

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uncertain to separate the signal from

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the noise and you can think about stuff

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that happens because of luck is noise

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right that's just because we live in a

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noisy world and stuff that happens

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because of our own decisions

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is due to signal so what do we do when

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we have good outcomes we say AHA that's

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signal and when we have bad outcomes we

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say oh that's just noise I'm gonna

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ignore that now it actually gets a

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little worse because it turns out that

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people will go and never another level

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deep into blaming risk for the fact that

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they might have a bad outcome and be

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losing where what they do is still cuz

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you know we all want to think really

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well of ourselves

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they still attribute good outcomes to

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good decisions but now what they do is

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they attribute bad outcomes to poor risk

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management now this gets to the heart of

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what Jeff Yost was saying about risks

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missed because what's happening here is

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that somebody sort of trying to be

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honest they're saying well I know that

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all my bad outcomes aren't really due to

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luck but it's as if they want to say

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like well I still don't want to question

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whether I'm winning or losing because

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that would feel really bad to me if I

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felt that my strategy wasn't winning so

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let me look around for something that's

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kind of more or at least feels more

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intellectually honest to actually blame

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this on and what they do is they blame

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it on risk management so a poker player

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who goes broke doesn't go broke because

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they're a bad player and they actually

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have a losing

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oh gee they go broke because they played

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to higher they bet too much if you think

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about a start-up for example how many of

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you have ever heard a startup that went

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broke where the people who founded the

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startup says you know what my idea was

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terrible there was no way I was ever

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gonna do well with that idea that's rare

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what they generally say is I didn't

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raise enough capital I didn't have

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enough runway right so that's a risk

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management issue right like I didn't

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have enough money for the bet that I was

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making right and if you listen to the

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dialogue around the 2009 financial

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crisis which we just heard about what

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what did we hear from the bank's right I

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bet too big or my risk management was

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awful what you'd never heard from a bank

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was you know what we had a losing

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strategy and if we kept applying that

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losing strategy as we did we were

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inevitably gonna go broke and that's

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exactly what happened what you heard

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instead was our risk management

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department needs to get better we need

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to learn to manage our risk better now

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I'm not saying that no poker player ever

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went broke because they didn't bet too

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big I'm not saying that no startup ever

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went broke because they actually didn't

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have enough capital but they had the

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world's greatest idea and I'm certainly

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not saying that all of the banks that

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have ever gone broke didn't go broke

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because they didn't have a good risk

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management department but what I know is

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it's not all of them and it's almost a

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hundred percent of them that will use

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this as a way to sort of reason around

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actually getting down deep into this

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foundational assumption about whether

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you actually have a winning strategy or

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not because we don't like to go there it

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doesn't feel good to us so this is

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really an example of motivated reasoning

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which is very well studied you there's a

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great description of it in a book called

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Cluj by Gary Marcus Dan kahan has done a

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lot of work in it as well I recommend

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that you read up on it and basically

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this is a cognitive bias where we tend

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to only pay attention to evidence that

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confirms our foundational belief or

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whatever our beliefs are and we actively

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work to discredit disconfirming evidence

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and notice this pattern

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allows us to do that right the way that

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we think about risk actually allows us

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to avoid digging down deep into that

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foundational belief that we are awesome

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we don't have to examine it because

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whenever we win to something we use it

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as confirming evidence that we're

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awesome and that our decisions are great

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and when we lose we use risk as a way to

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disconfirm the evidence that might be

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suggesting otherwise so just to sum up

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what the problem is that Jeff was

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talking to me about we all want to think

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we're awesome risk is a very convenient

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way to avoid examining this foundational

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belief that were awesome so I agree with

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him rich misc so I'm just gonna leave

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you with this quote from EB white of

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Charlotte's Web Fame luck is not

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something you can mention in the

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presence of a self-made man thank you

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