#053 – Card Counting & Beckham's Playbook

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read time 3 minutes 

#053 at a Glance:

• Quote that will get you thinking: An appetite for praise.

• Podcast you should listen to: The most dangerous stories from a professional card counter.

• Article you should read: David Beckham’s playbook for mobilising star talent.

• Interesting Phenomenon: Why the year is going so fast.

• Tweet I liked: The least visible yet most impactful factor in making anything significant.

Quote that will get you thinking:

Podcast you should listen to:

Modern Wisdom #687 – Steven Bridges

Steven Bridges is a professional gambler and mostly-legal card counter.

If you’ve seen the movie 21, you’ll know that it’s possible to count cards while playing blackjack at the casino to beat the house.

But this isn’t just limited to the movies – Steven is part of a team that takes on the biggest casinos in the world using hardcore maths, disguises, and secret signals to win big.

Expect to learn the details of how a team of players is needed to take on a casino, how Steven chooses which casinos to count at, the best and worst places to play blackjack in Vegas, the most amount of money Steven has won and lost in a single session, how he deals with losing absurds amounts of money, just how difficult it is to actually count cards, and much more.

Listen or Watch on Spotify here. Listen on Apple Podcasts here. Watch on YouTube here.

[Podcast Length: 1 hour 4 minutes]

Article you should read:

David Beckham’s Playbook for Mobilising Star Talent 

Harvard Business School recently came out with an interesting deep dive on David Beckham and it’s an angle that I haven’t seen explored before…

As opposed to most of the articles that tend to embellish Beckham’s illustrious career, this piece delves into the way he’s managed to build a huge brand – Inter Miami CF – and use it as a vehicle to attract global talent such as Lionel Messi.

Some really interesting takeaways to think about from a corporate/business perspective when wanting to attract top-tier talent.

Check out the article here.

Interesting Phenomenon:

Why The Year is Going So Fast

Great insight from Chris Williamson on why time flies by when you’re living in repetition:

“Adventure and novelty, for me, are very invigorating. It’s also a great way to make time slow down.

When people say ‘I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone’, what they mean is, ‘I don’t remember the days that have gone so far in this year’. One of the best ways you can slow this down is to add more memory units, and memory units are highly derived from how much novelty there’s been.

If you drive the same route to work every day for 3 years, that’s basically a thousand journeys that are condensed down into one memory. Unless there was one day in particular where it was rainy and you skidded, or you were involved in a car crash, or someone called you and you got a raise, etc, of course you’ll remember those days.

But because it’s always the same thing, it just gets condensed down into essentially one memory, so, trying to vary and add as much novelty as possible is very good.”

Tweet I liked:

Thanks for reading! Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, stay curious. ⚡

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