Risk Intelligence

For those of you not familiar with TED, it is a group dedicated to "Ideas Worth Spreading." They hold various events where people give a 15 minute lecture about... well almost anything. Here is a TED Talk about risk intelligence given by Dylan Evans. Dylan is the author of Risk Intelligence, and his thesis is that professional gamblers do not think the same way that other people do. My wife could have told you that.

When I talk to civilians about professional gambling, they often equate gambling to alcoholism. Dylan says that in psychology most psychologists study gambling as a disease, and they use the same alcoholism analogy, but leave no room for the person who studies and appreciates fine wine. I believe my analogy is better.  I tell civilians that I am not like an alcoholic, I am like a guy who owns a brewery.  Every bottle that goes down that conveyor belt is dollars and cents of profit to me. Yes, bottles may fall and get broken, I could have a truck hijacked and lose the load, but the more bottles that run down that conveyor belt, the more money I eventually make.

If you would like to test your own risk intelligence, you can take the test here.

Risk Intelligence Test