Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
by Annie Duke
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financial adviser
Recommended by 12 notable people, including Derek Sivers and Marc Andreessen
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See customer reviews on Amazon →Duke blends poker stories with decision-science insights, arguing that life’s outcomes are a mix of skill and luck. She uses high-stakes poker hands and controversial sports calls to illustrate how we misjudge luck. The book reads like a long, chatty seminar: part cognitive bias 101, part personal memoir. You’ll likely pick up the habit of asking “What were the odds?” before judging decisions. The main friction: it rehashes common cognitive biases without novel depth, and its repetitive structure can wear thin. Its strength is teaching decision-outcome separation, but the poker metaphors can feel forced.
This summary and audience guidance are AI-generated from the book's description and its recommendation history, last updated May 2026. Recommendations, quotes and sources elsewhere on this page come from published material and are not generated.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Poker champion turned business consultant Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions as a result in “the ultimate guide to thinking about risk” (Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit). “A big favorite among investors these days.”—The New York Times “Outstanding.”—Jason Zweig, The Wall Street Journal In Super Bowl XLIX, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made one of the most controversial calls in football history: With 26 seconds remaining, and trailing by four at the Patriots' one-yard line, he called for a pass instead of a hand off to his star running back. The pass was intercepted and the Seahawks lost. Critics called…
Difficulty:easy
Length:289 pages (Medium)
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View available editions on AmazonWhy recommended
Recommended by 22 sources and appears in Books Recommended by Writers, Books Recommended by Founders, and Most Recommended Books.
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
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Consider The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. Recommended by 8 sources.
“Soft-spoken, heavily illustrated fable built from short dialogues and watercolor sketches. Each spread pairs a spare line of text with a loose drawing, so the pleasure is visual and aphoristic rather than narrative; readers collect felt-true sentences more than plot. Most useful when you want quick consolations, a prompt for conversation with a child, or a pause during a rough day. Limiting if you want sustained argument, concrete advice, or tightly plotted storytelling: the repetition of gentleness can feel sentimental or thin after a while.”
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
