Gambling on Radical Compassion: Review of Annie Duke's "Thinking in Bets"

Next up in my review series of work/career books: Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts by Annie Duke. 

Painting above: Three Singers c. 1795 by Angelica Kauffman

 I know nothing about gambling, so I was very intrigued when I came across a career advice book written by a poker champion. Annie Duke is a rare one - she is the only woman to have won two of the world's most prestigious poker tournaments (the WSOP Tournament of Champions and the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship), is the founder of an educational non-profit in the States, and she's written six books. Oh, she also has her PhD. Now that's my kind of women.

 Duke's book appealed to me because Production in Animation is making one decision after another on what is almost always a tight schedule with frequently-limited resources. Depending on what kind of show you are working on (series, feature, straight-to-DVD/streaming), you have a very finite amount of time to gel with your crew, trust they will all hold up their end of the bargain, and get the show out the door (praying all the while it looks good and the client is happy).
To be sure, thinking in bets is not a miracle cure. 
Thinking in bets won’t make self-serving bias disappear 
or motivated reasoning vanish into thin air. 
But it will make those things better. 
And a little bit better is all we need to transform our lives. 
Annie Duke

 I flattered myself in thinking that I would read this book, absorb the knowledge offered, and roll out onto the floor, making brilliant decisions on the fly and raking in the benefits. I was pleasantly surprised that Duke's book is much deeper than that. Honestly, if I were to say anything about this book, it would be that it is a very fine treatise on compassion in business.


Wait, how did we get from making bets to a guide to workplace compassion?

 Think about it. This book is about making smarter decisions, which is a very active process. Duke reminds us that how we make decisions has a lot to do with our interactions with other people, not just the information presented. This means our hearts, not merely our minds, are often factored in to the decisions we make. We are all critics of those who make seemingly poor decisions (Why that play in that game? Why did that Director make that choice in X movie? Does this person have any idea of what's at stake?), yet we ourselves are often hesitant to own up to our mistakes, or opt for the ease of brushing off our own accountability.

 That's where the compassion comes in. She gives many compelling (and sometimes heartbreaking) accounts of those who were perceived of making a poor choice in a variety of circumstances, and then raked over the coals for it. Goodness knows we don't want to be that person, and Duke knows it. To avoid it, we are strongly advised (or dare I say commanded lovingly) to look below the surface of the decision, realize how our own bias is setting us up for the same fate, and how we can truly learn from other people's so-called mistakes in a way that is productive and empowering, not cruel and damning.

 Duke covers how we make decisions, come to conclusions, and makes an extremely compelling and fresh argument for the old "right and wrong" dichotomy (read: it's not that simple, but her explanation of this argument is). She's under no illusions - she knows no one wants to be wrong, and losing stings more than winning sweetens. This makes her book all the more approachable and helpful.

 If you're not yet convinced, here are just a few of the hands-on, practical, accessible things both managers and regular employees will take away from this book:

  • Basic structure of (and how to carry out) a good pre-mortem meeting
  • How to disentangle the message from the messenger 
  • Re-evaluate the role of skepticism
  • Compete against your peers in a way that is rooted in kindness and professionalism
  • How to spot your own biases that are continuously tripping you up at work and in your personal life
  • 12 ways to improve decision quality that you can implement pretty much immediately after reading about them


 Read my fave highlights from Duke's book here.

 The previous review in this series focused on David Whyte's Crossing the Unknown Sea, check it out here.

 The first review in this series focused on Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you can read it here.

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