Poker or Chess: Better Model For Decision Making In Life
Decision Making Model of Life
What is the better model for decision making in life, chess or poker? Many think it is chess where one makes strategic moves whereas others take life as poker.
John von Neumann, father of game theory, said that life is more like poker. Real life decisions can be strategic but more often than not, there are uncertainties and risks involved. Let’s take a moment, and look at ourselves, we are the person depending on the path we have taken at different nooks and corners of life.
- A high school student has to choose from numerous colleges and subjects.
- An employee has to decide whether to shift job or stay there.
- If you are dating, whether you should propose for marriage or not.
- If you are investing, should we invest in stocks, real estate, crypto.
Looking at all the decisions in life, there are hidden informations, risks, uncertainties and luck.
Chess
Chess is a form of computation and in theory, there is always a path to reach to any stage. Series like The Queen’s Gambit, Queen of Katwe, show how strategic the game is. One can learn it, get the theory same as Mathematics. If you lose, you would have made a mistake and you can blame only yourself for the loss.
Poker
Poker is a game of incomplete information and risks. The player has very less time to decide and luck plays an important role on the outcome. A lot of people are involved, and you have to make the best possible decision in midst of so many external factors.
In life, the result of any decision is the quality of our decision plus luck.
Comparing the two games, the outcome in Chess can be directly attributed to the decision-quality where as in Poker, it depends on decision-quality plus luck.
Life is also full of surprises, and the result of our decisions that is future can turn out to be completely different even though we take our best possible decision. There is hidden information, so many people involved, changing conditions, luck and risks. Poker is a better model for decision making in life. It gives us perspective to separate out the outcome quality from decision-making process and at many times, making peace with self about the paths not taken.
