(Non-fiction Review) Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke

About the author: Annie Duke is an American former professional poker player and author in cognitive-behavioral decision science and decision education. She holds a World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet from 2004 and used to be the leading money winner among women in WSOP history, and is still in the top five as of April 2023, despite being retired from poker, last cashing at a tournament 2010. (Wikipedia)

This quote made me realize quitting isn’t always a bad action.

>If you’re near the top of Everest and the weather changes, you want to turn around. If your fight doctor lets you know that your kidneys are damaged, you can retire from the sport. The same is true for your major, or your job, or the direction of your career, or a relationship, or piano lessons, or even something as small as a movie you’re watching. – Annie Duke

This quote is also convincing!

>The sooner you figure out that you should walk away, the sooner you can switch to something better. And the sooner that happens, the more resources you’re saving, which you can then devote to more fruitful endeavors. – Astro Teller, co-founder and Captain of Moonshots (CEO) of X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory

The author describes a lot of cognitive biases that prevent you from quitting, including loss aversion and status quo bias.

>the status quo is the path you’re already on or the way you’ve always done things. The bias is that we have a preference to stick with those decisions, methods, and paths that we’ve already set upon, and a resistance to veering from them into something new or different. – Annie Duke

She also offers you some tips for dealing with these cognitive biases.

>Include states and dates “If I am (or am not) in a particular state at a particular date or at a particular time, then I have to quit.” Or “If I haven’t done X by Y (time), I’ll quit.” Or “If I haven’t achieved X by the time I’ve spent Y (amount in money, effort, time, or other resources), I should quit” (Kill Criteria) – Annie Duke

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This book helped me to stop learning multiple languages. I still struggle with quitting my endeavors, for which I have committed time and resources a lot. For example, I am at an intermediate level in Korean language. After becoming able to understand Korean YouTube vlogs at an 80% rate which was my goal, I realized watching YouTube in Korean doesn’t bring me any value rather it has a bad effect which is low self-esteem in appearance(Korean is known for lookism and plastic surgeries). I thought it was time to quit learning it. But another thought popped up in my head saying that it might be useful for a career in the future. Therefore, quitting is hard for me. I will reread this book to quit learning the Korean language. Haha!

Thanks for reading, book lovers. See you soon!

by eieireddit