The roll of flow in accelerated learning rather than linear learning

There is a cool study done by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Advanced Brain Monitoring where they looked at snipers in flow. The snipers in flow learned at rates 200-500% faster than snipers not in flow! The results were also repeated with non-military snipers -- they could cut the learning time in half if they could get the snipers in flow. This means Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule now becomes 5,000. Wow.

It seems ridiculous, but when you start to achieve flow states on a regular basis it's very apparent this is a truth.

The neurochemicals you receive in flow massively enhance performance. So it's obviously great when you're playing poker in flow because you're playing at a higher level, but it also translates to accelerated learning.

Steven Kotler, neurcoscience of flow researcher, says that neurochemicals exist to tag experience. He uses the analogy that they are like a huge neon sign telling your brain THIS IS IMPORTANT, SAVE FOR LATER. So this means everything you learned while in a flow state is tagged deeper into your memory.

Since staying ahead of the curve is paramount in poker I believe your ability to access flow more often than your opponents is essential.

I love Josh Waitzkin. He is a Jedi master. At the very least, he is hands-down the best learner and teacher I have found.

Some of my powerful notes from him:

• The final step of mastery is the movement towards uninstructed self expression. Unlearning.

• Finding subtle obstructions and releasing them.

• Getting the kinks out of your creativity hose.

• To go from good to great, or great to very great. You must embrace your personal funk, self expression.

When I first read some of these I was confused, or at least I did not understand it too well. Each time I go back and read Waitzkin I see and feel it from a different and deeper perspective.

“A believer becomes a retriever…if you are searching for it, you will find it.” - Wim Hof

I've read MGOP2 and some articles about flow, and you just inspired me to read more on the topic!

Great stuff, keep em posts coming!

Hey Kevin,
I have ben reading a couple of psychology books lately and find this topic to be very interesting. Which books/material about this topic can you recommend?
Cheers

I'll be joining Nick Howard on his twitch stream tomorrow:

Friday October 14th @11:00am PST

Come hang out and talk flow and poker with us!

That was fun. Here's the recording.

Thought the talk was very interesting. I'm only a recreational poker player, but I think applying this concept can be very useful for my school/professional life as well (tax accounting ftw). I have been thinking about how to apply this approach to my life in general, but had a few questions that perhaps you have insight on.

It seems flow is mainly discussed in the context of performing optimally and being fully engaged in the execution of a gameplan. The information and knowledge gained in the loading phase are primarily integrated at a subconscious state, which in turn make decisions in the execution become radically simpler assuming your in the flow state.

But what about applying flow to the loading/studying phase? Where I trip up is whether or not we can achieve a flow state in the actual process of learning/research (loading phase). Are there criteria or suggestions that we can apply to building a framework/model for learning a topic in an efficient way that still maximizes the integration of the material? If this personally optimized learning model were created, it seems like I could apply the theory to many different things I was interested in learning in. Consequentially, I imagine this could be beneficial for figuring out how to play in SRP's BTN vs. BB & also how to used advanced product costing systems for multinational manufacturing companies :).

Summary (tldr): Looking for advice on creating a personalized approach to learning that is conducive for operating in a flow state while actually learning? Sorry if I was unclear, I'm a huge newbie in flow psychology!

I’d love to chat with you and see if we can create some healthy processes for you and I would love to share it.

I’ll see if I can bring my zen dude Austin in on this too. He’s not a poker player and will provide lovely context and different perspective.

Poker is an art not just a science. Poker is about people and emotions. Spend time fully immersed in great art with great people and good shit happens.

A system is only as strong as it's weakest node. Psychologist Roy Baumeister's work has shown that "bad is stronger than good".

Your external game can be a 90%, and if your internal game is a 70% the sum total of this system is NOT 80%, but rather <80%. How much less?

Improve the internal game by being vulnerable, taking the risk, playing on the razors edge. Go deep inside yourself, with yourself -- and go deep inside yourself with others. Find the others.

Each of you will see something different. Whatever it is that you find is a teacher. Don't judge it. Just learn from it.

Monsters are teachers too.

I love quotes. They fill me up with gumption. When my gumption tank is full, I feel my best and perform my best.

This is a great stack:

Muhammad Ali Impossible + Steve Jobs on Failure Stack

1. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” -- Muhammad Ali

2. Steve Jobs on failure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI

Playing around on Twitch today.

username: kevcory

Ed is on his way over. Ed is my friend and producer of our upcoming podcast. I played around on Twitch yesterday, after being introduced to Twitch from Nick Howard's recent streaming. It seems like a fun medium to play with.

I have learned this year that I crave a certain level of love and connection; which can be challenging as a professional poker player. Yesterday I saw Twitch as a way to take a hobby I do a few hours a week and stack some connection on top of it.

Dddogkillah No major plans yet. I play FIFA 17 as a hobby. I really enjoy the strategy and performance element. Soccer is a beautiful game in my opinion and it's a great lateral cross-trainer for poker. And it's fun!

Open to any other ideas you may have? Any ideas?!

Some ideas for now...
-Bring some friends on and have deep conversations.
-Play sometimes where I am completely focused on the game. No distractions.
-Experiment.

I'm already playing anyway and I feel good when I'm connecting with other people. Seems like a no brainer to stack some deeper connection on top of something I'm already doing.

"If I can't, the I must..."

Diving into fear increases flow. My friend Steve introduced me to the aforementioned quote yesterday. It will sling shot you into that fear. Higher levels of flow will be achieved.

I have discovered a deeply rooted pattern to stay in line and "Don't show off!", especially when it comes to being creative and expressive. It comes from my childhood and my relationship with music. Cliff notes of that story is that I was forced to practice and play music growing up, and to fit within a very certain box and structure --- it caused lots of anxiety. I'm grateful for that anxiety and that experience, it was and is a great teacher. I'm grateful for the gift my parents gave me by forcing me to play an instrument.

For now, I will dive into the fear and start to break this fucking pattern.

I sit down at my piano often and play for myself. I don't play in front of others often because of this pattern, and when I do I hold back. I have been unconsciously telling myself most of my life, "Don't show off! You're not supposed to do that!". Yesterday was my birthday and one gift I received was this wonderful lesson from Steve. Thank you Steve :)

I am very proud of the imperfection of this recording. It's more fun when it's not perfect. No time to waste.

https://youtu.be/x5may_enQlA

Art > Intellectual

Crazy Fucking Year: A Year In Review -- 2016

I started 2016 in a dark place. For the first time in my life I contemplated suicide.

This ultimately led to the decision to quit poker.

This was not the first time. I think I've "quit" poker twice in my career only to end up back. I have known that poker alone does not fulfill me and have struggled to solve that problem.

It wasn't clear then, yet now it is as clear as can be -- from the depressed state I made a decision rooted in fear. I decided to go back to school. I should have known this was not a good decision for me -- yet blinded by fear that is the decision I made.

School provided a release from poker.

School was easy for me. There's not much grey area. You do what you're told to do, you do it well, and you're good -- not like poker or entrepreneurship where you have to decide what you're going to do (and not do), why you're going to do it (and not that), and how you're going to do it -- all within a world with seemingly unlimited options.

Fast-forward halfway through the first semester and I'm doing well in school. And I'm feeling much better. I'm playing poker on the side and actually crushing that pretty hard too. I started following Nick Howard's Achieving Higher Balance blog. It resonated with me. I felt something different. Nick had found something I could not find on my own -- a way to simplify poker. I went all in on Nick's work and eliminated everything else from my poker study -- loading Nick's work to my current skill stack was a potent multiplier.

As time went on, the release deepened and it became very clear to me I would not continue down any sort of route academia would lead me. I finished up the semester. I never actually checked my grades, although I think I got all As -- death ground strategy was a must -- the route of academia was not an option. And so the grades did not and could not matter.

The second half of the year is where it really started getting interesting.

To be continued...

Love you bro, great year.

This.

"Worry is preposterous"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf7ZePNuus0&feature=youtu.be

I just played my first session in a flow state in a very, very long time and it make me remind about this blog.

What's up Kevin?

I have been away from this blog for a while, but recently read a beautiful article and shared it with a few poker player friends. Popped into my head it would be a good idea to share this one with more people.

If directed towards poker players online, I may think this article could be titled:

How to improve your mental game (which will also improve you bottom line) by cultivating self compassion.

Or maybe: Read this if you're struggling in a downswing!

Self compassion > Self Esteem

A few passages that stuck out to me:

*"These two reactions to shortcomings, failures and problems might appear to reflect a difference in self-esteem but, in fact, the key difference involves not self-esteem but rather self-compassion. That is, the difference lies not so much in how people evaluate themselves (their self-esteem) but rather in how they treat themselves (their self-compassion). And, as it turns out, the latter appears to be far more important for wellbeing than the former. Of course, people prefer to evaluate themselves favourably rather than unfavourably, but self-compassion has the power to influence people’s emotions and behaviours in ways that self-esteem does not."

"Just as compassion involves a desire to minimise the suffering of others, self-compassion reflects a desire to minimise one’s own suffering and, just as importantly, to avoid creating unnecessary unhappiness and distress for oneself. Self-compassionate people treat themselves in much the same caring, kind and supportive ways that compassionate people treat their friends and family when they are struggling. When they confront life’s problems [or downswings, playing hands poorly, etc.] , self-compassionate people respond with warmth and concern rather than judgment and self-criticism. Whether their problems are the result of their own incompetence, stupidity or lack of self-control, or occur through no fault of their own, self-compassionate people recognise that difficulties are a normal part of life. As a result, they approach their problems with equanimity, neither downplaying the seriousness of their challenges nor being overwhelmed by negative thoughts and feelings."*

Do you respond to mistakes at the table with warmth and concern, rather than judgement and self-criticism? Even if it's a result of your own incompetence, stupidity, or lack of self control?

"Most research on self-compassion has examined its relationship to emotion, but it also has implications for people’s motivation and behaviour. Strong emotions can undermine effective behaviour by leading people to focus on reducing their distress rather than managing the original problem. If unchecked because a person lacks self-compassion, negative reactions foster denial, avoidance and a difficulty or unwillingness to face the problem, leading to dysfunctional coping behaviours. To the extent that self-compassionate people respond with greater equanimity, they respond more effectively to the challenges they confront."

"Some people resist the idea that they should be more self-compassionate. Many people assume that self-compassion reflects Pollyanna-ish thinking, denying reality or, worse, self-indulgence. In this view, self-compassion means ignoring one’s problems, shirking responsibility, having low standards, and going easy on oneself. People who believe that being tough on oneself motivates hard work, appropriate behaviour and success worry that self-compassion will undermine their performance.

These concerns reflect a lack of understanding of what self-compassion actually involves."

"Self-compassion is a teachable skill: people can learn to become more self-compassionate."

"The first step in cultivating self-compassion is to start noticing instances in which you are not being nice to yourself. Are you telling yourself harsh and unkind things in your mind? Do you punish yourself by pushing yourself too hard or depriving yourself of pleasure when things go wrong? Would you treat a loved one this way under similar circumstances?"

Towards the end of the article, they get into the "how to".

Great read. Hope it helps.

Full article: https://aeon.co/amp/essays/learning-to-be-kind-to-yourself-has-remarkable-benefits

Going through my collection of notes on Evernote, and since I'm in the sharing mood...Love this one. Fun to apply this lesson to poker.

Kobe Bryant: To Be Unstoppable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4hdCnQ_3Dw

On the Perimeter I have 2 moves. On the post I have 2 moves. That’s it.

Level 1
Perimeter: I'll go right, pull up shoot. Left, pull-up shoot.
Post: turn left fadeaway, turn right fadeaway

Level 2
So now when I go right if you want to block it, I’ll pump fake. I’ll pump fake, you jump.

So you make the game very simple.

"To be unstoppable you have to first be predictable. To be unstoppable you first have to be predictable. Because if you’re unpredictable you don’t know what the heck you’re going to do so how can you dictate to the defense what you’re going to do. So you have to be very simple. So I know if I have a chance I’m gonna go right and shoot — you KNOW I’m going to go right and shoot because now I go right two times, make it, you’re expecting me to go right — now I control you. Now I’ll fake right, go left. Now I go left and you go oh he’s gonna make another one, now I pump fake."

Josh Waitzkin

Speaking at JW3 cultural centre in London on 10 October 2017, eight-time US National Chess Champion Josh Waitzkin told the audience that he actively seeks ‘discomfort and pain’ because it allows him to steepen his growth curve.

https://vimeo.com/238730237

@KLaw

my man.

@Nick -- Love you, man.

I wrote the above comment and then wasn't sure what else to write.

The initial "Love you, man." came super quick. No mind. It just came. I sat and stared at the blinking curser for a minute, not sure what else to say. Can my only response be "Love you, man."?

I believe those thoughts are coming from a place that it's not "normal" to just tell another dude you love him -- especially publicly!

But, fuck that. I'd love to live in a world where speaking about and sharing love is a more everyday and normal thing. So I guess I need to start doing that, it always starts with the individual.

@Samu -- I'm glad you enjoyed it! I can't get enough of JW.

Waitzkin has been a huge influence on me. When I read the Art of Learning, maybe 5 years ago? it changed the trajectory of my life. It sent me looking inward. Josh talked about chess becoming a form a psychoanalysis -- I loved that. It put me on a different path. A long, crooked, strange path. Lots of conversations, meeting interesting people, reading -- lots of reading, meditation, journalling, mind expanding substances, traveling. A lot of ups and a lot of downs. The down parts suck so fucking hard when you're in them, but looking back they're always so so valuable. I try to remind myself of that now when I'm in one of those places. There is gold in those dark tough times.

Writing is wonderful. I am enjoying reflecting on this right now. I'm living a much different life than I was 5 years ago. More space, more reflection, introspection, inner peace, calm. It's absolutely insane how much an individual can change over the course of several years.

Another recent influence of mine is Jordan Peterson. The dude is intellectually and emotionally sharp as fuck. He reminds me of Joseph Campbell. A client of mine pointed me towards him and I've gone deep. He's good. You might like him.

There are so many places to start with Jordan Peterson. I don't think you can go wrong.

Here's the one I listened to this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE0u7-SX2hs&t=86s

If you're looking for the Jordan Peterson heroic dose check out his Maps of Meaning lectures. It's powerful.

man-love requires great bravery ��

This is a great post Kevin. Thank you! I am sure I will be referencing back to it many times to come!

Some stuff that came through this morning that I wanted to share.

Mission #1: I help entrepreneurs, leaders, creators, pro athletes, pro poker players, Olympic hopefuls go from good to great and great to truly elite.

Halfway through my professional poker career I read the Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin—the experience of reading that book ignited something inside of me.

I wanted a coach like that.

I wanted to coach like that.

So that's what I've been creating.

KevinCoryLawrence.com

Mission #2: Ignite the Autotelic —University 10.0

The bigger purpose behind the whole thing is to ignite the autotelic. Our education system is broken. I was bored in school. I didn’t care about learning. I felt dead inside about the future. I got really lucky to stumble my way into starting a company at 19 with my friend Mark Kliethermes —having no clue what we were doing. I graduated college, got a real job, hated it and quit in 3 months. A year later I made the decision to play poker professionally. I had no business doing this—but I was too naive to realize how hard it would be.

Along that journey something changed in me and I found a dormant autotelic inside me.

“Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes people who are internally driven, and who as such may exhibit a sense of purpose and curiosity, as autotelic. This is different from being externally driven, in which case things such as comfort, money, power, or fame are the motivating force.”

How many other dormant autotelic’s are out there and because our education system is broken are not being expressed in the world?

If more dormant autotelics are ignited it would be better for the individual, better for their community, and better for the world.

Thanks for reading <3

I just wanted to say a big thank you to you Kevin. Your posts are a source of great knowledge, experience, inspriation and information.

Perception is reality seemingly, and while we all like to share in our success we tend to trivialise or even hide our failures (as men I think it's further amplified). Thank you for your honesty because it's taught me how important failure is to growth - instrinsically and extrinsically.

This post in the Mental Game forum section inspired me to finish up something I was writing for Medium.

I think I'm finished, but I'll post it here first for you guys, before I post it on Medium. I would love to know your thoughts -- yes you -- I'd love that.

Thanks for reading.

Ok, so it doesn't really copy-paste over too well here so I guess I just gotta publish on Medium and post that link: How To Play Poker (or Life) Perfectly

Hi, I just had a thought that came about because it was triggered by the Josh Waitzkin video posted upthread, so here seems to be the natural place to post it and hopefully get some discussion going.

I was thinking about two related ideas, the idea of flow, and the idea of unconscious competence.

It seems that being in both these states is beneficial to a poker player (or in any discipline really).

So I started thinking about how to apply it to poker, where there are so many variables. It seems like the more things we have down to the point where we don't have to think about them, the more likely we will be to tap into our intuition, or failing that to have time to slow down and really think things through.

So an obvious spot to try to simplify things is preflop. Lets say in NLHE 6 max, if we were to decide to always opened identical ranges, for the sake of argument 18/20/28/45/45 (the numbers don't really matter except to have a baseline).

If we were to stick to these numbers, we would be giving up some immediate EV - when there are two nits in the blinds, we should be opening way more than 45% on the BTN for example.

But perhaps we would gain something by sticking to these numbers - we could train our opening to the point of unconscious competence, which would allow us to get into a flow state more often.

The thing is, if we don't do this and adjust our opening ranges to each table, then we are guaranteeing that we will always be in a state of some uncertainty preflop. We profit from this uncertainty when we open wide and steal from nits, but is it possible its just a distraction, and by always opening the same ranges we would benefit by having more mental energy for later on in the hand, less uncertainty over the course of a session, and, gradually and over time, a more intuitive understanding of our ranges since they would always be the same?

@siren and screamdustry,

So much in here!! Loving the engagement. Thank you.

It's more enjoyable for me to have a conversation, rather than write.

Do either of you guys want to join me on a Zoom call, we can jam on all of this (and maybe more). It could make for a cool podcast episode. What do you think?

Either of you up for playing?!

This. Example of a good coach:

"It's on, man. It's on. You know what I'm saying? We're in a fight, and you can count on me until the last man is standing. Somewhere up there is a star with your name on it. I might not be able to help you find it, but I've got pretty strong shoulders, and you can stand on my shoulders while you're looking for that star. You hear? For as long as you want. Stand on my shoulders and reach man. Reach."
-Gil Reyes

What is it costing you by having a coach that doesn't embody something like this?

What would you be capable of if you were willing to raise your level of commitment and create with a coach like this?

This is your life. You choose.

Dear poker community,

Stop grinding and start playing.

Love,
Kevin

Fuck, fuck, fuck!! Ready for some REAL shit?

Does anyone else see the connection between emotions and "natural disasters" (and how crazy is it that we call them that!! What if you called your anxiety a natural disaster?!!?!)

Emotions are a message. Feeling overwhelmed? Your body is telling you you're taking on too much at once. Solution? Remove some of what you're doing. Find the ONE thing to work on. You may notice once you start working on that one thing the overwhelm goes away. If I tried to juggle 10 balls at once right now, I'd be overwhelmed. Solution? I'd ask, "How many balls could I juggle that wouldn't be too easy and wouldn't be too hard?", "Where's the sweet spot at?"

How do you know where the sweet spot is?

You'll get feedback.

Were you bored? Add another ball or two. Were you overwhelmed? Remove a ball or two. Did you get into flow? You're in, or close to, that sweet spot.
Ok, back to nature. Do you see it? Do you see how "natural disasters" (can we upgrade this language please!) are natures emotions?

It's interesting how as a culture we have social patterns that manifest the bottling up and ignoring emotions. That whole, "be tough" masculine social pattern. That pattern is so fucking fragile. Fragile things break. That's not good. Antifragile things get stronger when they experience chaos and volatility. Or said another way antifragile things get stronger when they exist in this reality -- because chaos and volatility, the unknownness -- that's just part of the game we're playing. Don't resist the unknown. Embrace it. Amor fati. Fall in love with the unknown.

Not feeling emotions is fragile.

Being vulnerable, and feeling emotions. That is antifragile.

Most of my life I have ignored uncomfortable emotions. This causes me to carry around a great deal of physical pain. I have had 4 surgeries on my testicles. I have had surgery to move my ulnar nerve in my right arm. I wore wrist braces for a long time during my online poker career. I wore them while I played, and I wore them while I slept.

I missed out on enjoying many experiences of life because I brought a cloud everywhere I went. My focus and attention was consumed and fixated on my physical pain. It fucking sucked.

I have learned the pain was all created in my mind. It was a creative mental framework that I created to make sure I didn't feel those uncomfortable emotions. I created it all.

Is nature sending us a message? Are we listening to the emotions of nature? Or are we avoiding them?

What's possible if you start feeling and listening to your emotions?

What's possible for humanity if we started feeling and listening to natures emotions?

What is it costing us that we're not?

Thanks for reading and my apologies for spelling, grammar, or anything else like that. I wasn't intending for this to be this big of a post. Rather than polishing it up, I value sharing it now. Maybe I will polish it up in the future. I'd love your feedback.

❤️����������,
Kevin

Come jam with me on Twitch!

https://www.twitch.tv/kevcory/

A few days ago I wrote this on a notecard:

"Being YOU is the most antifragile [can't read this word] for you and the world."
I am a gamer. As a kid I played lots of computer games (thanks Dad!). I still play games now sometimes. I took the TV and the PS4 out of the closet (literally) about a week ago, so that I could play Star Wars 2 Battlefront with my friend Austin Einhorn.

I will be playing around on Twitch talking strategy and many many other things.

You can learn about yourself many ways.

In my poker career, I learned things that improved my poker game (and myself) from playing video games, playing music, among many other things.

The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it.
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

I posted this on facebook a few days ago. A mentor of mine expanded on this quote. I hope you find it useful.

"If the mind creates the abyss, then the abyss is illusory.
If the abyss is illusory, then the bridge is illusory.
Only love, that manifests mind and heart, is real."

If I could do poker all over again I would explore outside of poker even more, connect to even more people. The people in our lives are worth exponentially more than money.

Love you all. Thanks for reading.

Hey guys,

I'd love to connect even more with you. I have become more active in social media. It's hard for me to share all the different places. I'd love to connect with you other places, as well as here. If your keen to play...

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevincorylawrence/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/kevincorylawrence

RIO will forever have a special place in my heart <3 Thanks again for all the love and support.

Getting warmer...I'd love any and all feedback! The good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. Seeking radical honesty.

Spending some time upgrading the writing on my website, here's before and after.

Before:

I am an adventurer, a creator and an explorer — both of the physical world and of the human mind; searching for truth and ultimate human potential. Halfway through his poker career I read a book: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin which changed everything. In short, it sent me on a journey inward and a journey towards a different way of being. I retired from poker to live my next dream of coaching highly intrinsically motivated individuals who lean into the idea of what life might be like living on a world-class growth and learning curve. I help my clients live on that accelerated curve to go from good to great or great to truly elite. I work with entrepreneurs, leaders, creators, professional athletes, and professional poker players.

After

I am an adventurer, a creator and an explorer — both of the physical world and of the human mind; searching for truth and ultimate human potential. Halfway through my 9 year career as a professional poker player I read a book: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. I saw something in Josh. It changed everything. A deep introspective process ensued. I committed to living Qualitatively as a way of life and to the systematic creation and cultivation of a life dedicated to the movement towards unhindered self-expression — two key foundations of elite performance across all domains. My main creative project currently is providing coaching and consulting for elite performers: from professional poker players and professional athletes to CEOs and entrepreneurs to musicians and artists. While each individual is guided through their own unique and highly individualized introspective process, in the end the results are similar: a deep and powerful transformation of both self and relationship with the world.

-

Love, as always, RIO <3

-

“Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn't know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.”

― Joseph Campbell

Want to know the meaning of life? And a key foundation of elite performance?

Rick Rubin taught me the importance of starting the day with art.

This morning, the art involved listening to my favorite band, the Dave Matthews Band while dancing (maybe you could call it that?) around my apartment in a way that an outsider may describe in the police report as an insane elderly cat lady, who loaded up on stimulants and other substances and shape-shifted into a 33 year old male body, being able to dance like that for the first time in decades.

The result? I feel amazing.

The reality? Some day I won't be able to dance anymore.

Some day I will be dead. And so will you.

What's the point of life? Dancing is definitely part of it. Don't waste any more time. You do not know when you will die. I challenge you to carve out some time to channel you inner stimulant hopped up insane cat lady. Today, not tomorrow.

Side effects you may experience include but not limited to: improved job performance, satisfaction and productivity, inspiration, new insights, joy, fun, extra creativity, bliss, a connection to your heart...

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. ... The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.”
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

Dance motherfucker!

What's the point of life? What's tho point of dancing? What's the point of music?

Bonus points if you dance with your significant other! Seriously just bring up the "D" word to your wife and see what happens. Try it, see what happens...

I have been observing humans for a long time. As a professional poker player this was paramount for me. Observing others and myself, deeply. Getting inside the minds of my opponents and myself. Deep inside, and then even deeper.

I joined a co-working space a couple days ago.

Wow. So much to see.

I have done some work here, but mostly I have been listening...

A few things so far:
-I see more clearly why Corporations are fragile.
-The fall of the University is much more clear to me now.

In a world where everyone is distracted, there is so much gold if you shut up and listen, without judgment, to others, to the environment, to your body. Be curious. Just listen.

Experiment today with spending 30 minutes of judgement-free listening. Be curious. Follow that. I am curious what you observe. What did you see, feel, notice, hear, smell, taste? Can you taste a room? Can you hear someones heart?

The more you look the more you see.

Wise words from a friend and mentor...

Life is most fun. If it isn't, kill your...ego!

I value this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law

A fun story I will be creating in 2018...

Join me on Twitch as I document my journey to becoming one of the top 1% of FIFA for PS4 players in the world while limiting myself to 2-4 hours per week of study and game play.

https://www.twitch.tv/kevcory

“Ever since you were a little kid, you always have a dream about what you can accomplish. As soon as you get close to that dream, there’s another. There’s always a desire to keep learning, to keep evolving. Here’s the line. Let’s tickle it a bit. And then you figure out that’s not actually the line. The impossible is actually a little farther out, so let’s go over there and tickle it again. You do this for long enough and you just get used to it.” —Miles Daisher

How to transition from poker to business?

“The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness. I mean it is a combination of both.
I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony.
Not if you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific.
If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man
No longer a human being.
It is a successful combination of both.
That way it is a process of continuing growth.
Be water, my friend.”
-Bruce Lee

I've been a Bruce Lee fan for a long time but it wasn't until I played poker that I understood what he was talking about here. What he is talking about is Flow. It's not total passivity and its not total control either. Its that place in the middle where intuition meets intellect. John Wooden talked about being quick without rushing. I remember when I played basketball every day and being in the zone meant that my perception was so inclusive that everything slowed down and I could almost see things before they happened. Poker is a little bit different because there is so much more room for your perception to be skewed but the goal is the same.

Bruce also talks about pure, honest self-expression being the goal of any art/discipline, which, in poker, means acting with pure intention without fear or bias or aversion. I've been finding this state of being in my poker game recently and the results have been amazing. I'm not free of bias or aversion yet but I am much more aware of it and because of that I can act contrary to it or disregard it altogether. But once I lose this balance, I get tunnel vision and start to act out my fears and biases.

I remember when I played basketball every day and being in the zone meant that my perception was so inclusive that everything slowed down and I could almost see things before they happened

This is flow. STER: selfless, timeless, effortless, information richness

However, flow is a transient state. We cannot physiologically stay in flow.

Poker is a little bit different because there is so much more room for your perception to be skewed but the goal is the same.

I would love to hear you go deeper in this.

I'm not free of bias or aversion yet but I am much more aware of it and because of that I can act contrary to it or disregard it altogether. But once I lose this balance, I get tunnel vision and start to act out my fears and biases.

What triggers this loss of balance in you?

Nice Post KLaw

Pitsquared

I've been a Bruce Lee fan for a long time but it wasn't until I played
poker that I understood what he was talking about here. What he is
talking about is Flow. It's not total passivity and its not total
control either. Its that place in the middle where intuition meets
intellect. John Wooden talked about being quick without rushing.

It looks like you are in a nice place. It was wonderful what you wrote and I think sitting with these insights of yours and relating them to many parts of your life will also help making them part of your everyday life and not just poker, thus you will be able to get a much larger sample size faster having these ideas as a way of life and finding out how these things show up in your own life and how to handle them.

Also taking a time out and just allowing this empty space to be part of you, where you don't feel the need to fill the space or even if you feel the need to fill it, leaving it empty can be very helpful in cultivating some more inner calm and having your subconscious mind solve certain problems FOR you rather than trying to control everything on your own.

I mean that in poker, as opposed to basketball, there are so many more opportunities for fears, bias, and aversions to cloud our intuition.

Is that so? Is fear internal or externally generated?

Its hard sometimes to distinguish intuition from fear in-game because both are so subtle. Am I evaluating ranges in a balanced way or am I subconsciously assigning more weight to the stronger part of villain's range because I'm winning and I'm scared to lose what I won?

Imagine if you can do this and your opponents cannot. Also -- perfection is not needed. Accepting and loving our bias.

The more I find myself in flow the better things seem to turn out but I won't truly know for sure until my sample size is big enough.

My own experience and others, as well as the science would confirm this. Important to note that flow does increase risk taking -- something to think about.

it looks like, from that perspective, that a lot of my decisions are just responses to stress either because I am unfamiliar with a certain spot or the spot just triggers a fight or flight response because I'm scared on some level. Bluff-catching spots used to trigger stress for me and I would ignore pertinent variables and make a decision that I immediately knew was biased or presumptuous.

The fear is a message. Go deeper. Like we know, it's neither good or bad -- it just is. What I sense is a deep rooted fear of the unknown and desiring of perfection. What do you think? If it is that, or something like that, you can reveal and release those crimps that are blocking your true self-expression. There is great value in that. Do not fear the fear.

Fear is the doorway to flow.

Thank you Kevin for the suggestions. I understand where my fears originate and also how they manifest in all facets of life. My fears are fears of loss or fears of being unworthy and I am working with them. I came here more to share my experience and to connect with the experiences of others rather than seeking a coach but I would love to hear more about you're journey and how you've evolved.

"Much of what separates the great from the very good is deep presence--a relaxation of the conscious mind which allows the unconscious to flow unhindered. This is a nuanced and largely misunderstood state of mind that, when refined, involves a subtle reintegration of the conscious mind into a free-flowing unconscious process. The idea is to shift the primary role from the conscious to the unconscious without blissing out and losing the precision the conscious mind can provide." -Waitzkin

Doesn't this sound like what Bruce was talking about--a natural unnaturalness? I love it when fundamental truths transcend disciplines and even time.

My friend Jessica Carson wrote some wonderfully useful articles for people like me and the people I work with. If you are similar to us you may love this read. . . . I have in intuition that many poker pros share these qualities. Do you?

TWICE-BORN SOULS — RESTLESSNESS V. ROOTEDNESS

Quotes from the piece:

There are four big things I’ve learned about restless energy & disruptor identity:

–Disruptors have a tremendous amount of restless energy
–Restless energy likes to be directed externally into productive endeavors
–If the disruptor doesn’t expel restless energy, it can lead to psychological and physical pathology
-Disruptors can release restless energy through ritualization and redirection

Here is my three step recipe to calm your disruptive restlessness:. . . .

Relationships >>>>>>> making more money

http://danielcoyle.com/2018/02/08/check-steve-kerrs-master-class-building-relationships/

Cool article, Kevin. I find that teachers / leaders who have spoken to me with words of encouragement have led to me accomplishing much more, while those who've been critical caused me to coil up in a ball and second guess myself. I tend to retract and focus my attention on not making mistakes, as opposed to working in a "flow" state where I'm thinking about much less consciously. A big part of maturing for me was learning to only surround myself with people who I feel communicate with support and encouragement, and I believe it's helped a lot.

Awesome blog by the way. Keep going!

The idea of a new blog, a refresh, has been percolating in my subconscious and conscious lately, but my intuition has led me to typing these words here, right now -- so I'll trust and roll with that. Let's see what comes up.

I am on two missions:

1. the development of a meta-self, or awareness of that self, which is ego.
2. being in service of Others, the Planet, the Universe -- in service of ALL

After playing poker professionally for 9+ years, I've transitioned into the next stage of my professional life. That being said, I love Poker. I appreciate Poker. I love the Poker community. What a beautiful teacher Poker is. I also know how dark and challenging it can be. It's been a long journey for me to get where I am today. I see, feel, and know there is so much opportunity and potential in the Poker community. I plan on doing something about that.

I plan on sharing things that are bubbling up in myself. It will likely be what I am currently experiencing and learning. Which means I will be exploring things on the edge of my current understanding.

Everything I say may be all wrong and if so it's all right.

“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” -- Bruce Lee

If I had an opportunity to whisper a message into my younger self's ear I would say:

*Wake up. The way out is in. Fear is the doorway to flow. Follow your bliss. Feel first, don't think. Feel first, don't think. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. . . . *

Bruno I love that quote!

And yeah man, the ego can be a tricky bastard. It's well worth the rewards though.

For me is a hard work to put in practice.

If you think it's hard work to put into practice, then it will be.

Ego is NOT the enemy.

I love Ryan Holiday, but he's flat out wrong. If your story is something like: ego is the enemy, then YOU are creating an inner war with your ego. You will feel better and perform better when you love all parts of yourself.

ALL parts.

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships. Poker can be isolating. You do not have to do this alone.

If you want to feel better and perform better come hang with us on FB Live: Jamming with Kevin Tribes outperform individuals all day.

Yesterday, we launched: Jamming with Kevin, a live interactive show on Facebook Live. If you want to perform better and feel better come join us.

We will be riffing on all things: performance and wellness.

On the first episode, my good friend, business partner and producer of awesome Matt Thieleman, founder of https://goldenbristle.com/ joined me. It started a little slow, but then we dropped in. We specifically got loads of great feedback on the topic we discussed towards the end: Learning to Love Losing. When you love losing as much as winning YOU and YOUR LIFE will level up extremely quickly: you will feel better and perform better.

Next guest:

-My bestie, Austin Einhorn founder of Aprios. Austin is an absolute beast in the world of peak performance with a specialty in movement. Austin and I met 3 years ago at the magical Esalen for a week-long peak performance retreat put on by friends Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal at Flow Genome Project. Austin is my people, you will love him. We both work with extraordinary individuals and organizations at the top of their game from pro athletes to pro poker players to executives. Words cannot describe the Quality of who this man is. Join us, get in the conversation, bring some questions and let's level up together. Tribes outperform individuals all day. If any of this resonates with you, we'd love you to be part of our tribe.

Meet Jeff. Jeff is my coach. I have been working with him the past 6 months or so. It's been nothing short of fucking amazing. Check out his work. I think you'll like it.

http://transcendexperience.net/

Meet Dr. Ted.

Dr. Ted is a mentor of mine and one of the most brilliant, crazy, and loving humans I've ever met.

So much fun and learning from this man.

Mathematics of Consciousness -Your Life as a Video Game. Dr. Ted Achacoso #495

Maybe I should start writing some about lessons I have learned from Dr. Ted? Hmmm...

Friends who also have addictions, this distinction has been profound in helping me understand what's going on. . . .

Pleasure (dopamine) vs. Happiness (serotonin) -- his book is gold.

Thanks for caring, bro.