Maria Konnikova
Writer and professional poker player, born in Moscow, with a PhD in psychology from Columbia University; author of Mastermind, The Confidence Game and The Biggest Bluff, and a contributing writer for The New Yorker.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Maria Konnikova did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
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Our reading
Talent needs the right environment and opportunity to flourish; genes alone do not make a genius.
Their wordsOpportunity must be there. Genes are great, but they need to have the right environment in which to flourish.
↗Practice Doesn’t Make Perfectnewyorker.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsWe cannot predict with accuracy who will become élite in a given field, but we know that genes and environment matter and that we all have different natural peaks that we can reach through application and training. Saying that training is everything may be tempting, but it’s wrong.
↗Practice Doesn’t Make Perfectnewyorker.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 5 weeks earlier
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Their wordsSo what happens when we look for correlations between, say, openness and liberalism? We find one because it’s largely tautological.
↗Politics and Personality: Most of What You Read Is Malarkeynewyorker.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsSocial psychology touches on our most cherished beliefs about how the world should operate. We are more than happy to accept the counterintuitive—as long as it doesn’t conflict with our central notions of what ought to be.
↗Politics and Personality: Most of What You Read Is Malarkeynewyorker.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 8 months earlier
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Their wordsThat’s precisely why they can be such a powerful tool of deception. When we’re immersed in a story, we let down our guard.
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Our reading
When people are swept up in a powerful narrative, their reason often falls by the wayside.
Their wordsAzzopardi’s frauds relied on a quirk of human nature: when we become swept up in powerful narrative, our reason often falls by the wayside.
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Their wordsEmotion is the key to empathy. Arouse us emotionally and we will identify with you and your plight. Keep us cold, and empathy won’t blossom.
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.