On Life and Choices

I used to play in a weekly poker game with some cats. We went pretty deep down the rabbit hole and the dude who ran the game put us on to a book called “The Grinder’s Manual.” Basically the idea is, all your choices have an “expected value” positive or negative. Over a period of time if you continue to make +EV decisions, even though they may not all work out in your favor, they will add up to be overall positive.

So even in the midst of a shitty cold streak, bad hands, shitty luck, whatever (because sometimes that’s just way she goes) it’s just variance and if you just trust the process and continue to grind making positive EV choices you are going to come out on top.

I think life is a lot like that. You take an inventory of your life and you figure out where you want to be or what you want and then kind of look at all your choices, actions, even the thoughts you hold in your head, through the lens of does x get me closer to y. And then you just start chipping away and grinding towards whatever that is. It’s not always going to feel like you’re improving and there will be days or weeks where you backslide. But I think if you really want something even if it’s just general improvement in your life you have to be ready consistently push and work for it.

In my opinion most of the time we know exactly what it will take to accomplish what we want. It’s just getting out of our own way and consistently executing on that. Like it doesn’t take a phd to know that cutting out sugar and shitty processed foods and consistently working out will lead to a better body and health. But sometimes that 3:00am McDonald’s is too good to turn down.