Brené Brown and Edward O. Thorp (#739)





This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #409 “ Brené Brown — Striving versus Self-Acceptance, Saving Marriages, and More ” and episode #596 “ Edward O. Thorp, A Man for All Markets — Beating Blackjack and Roulette, Beating the Stock Market, Spotting Bernie Madoff Early, and Knowing When Enough Is Enough .”



Please enjoy!



Listen to the episode on  Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Overcast ,  Podcast Addict ,  Pocket Casts ,  Castbox ,  YouTube Music ,  Amazon Music ,  Audible , or on your favorite podcast platform .



Brought to you by AG1  all-in-one nutritional supplement, LinkedIn Ads  marketing platform with 1B+ users, and LMNT  electrolyte supplement.



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#739: Brené Brown and Edward O. Thorp







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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments .







SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE



SHOW NOTES




[06:06] Notes about this supercombo format.



[07:09] Enter Brené Brown.



[07:30] Changing in a lasting, meaningful way.



[08:03] Is self-accepted complacency possible?



[10:53] My woo confession about a crux skill.



[13:06] Narcissism: the shame-based fear of being ordinary.



[14:06] Efficacy isn’t always efficient.



[15:48] Pathology as armor that can’t be discarded.



[16:28] What are you unwilling to feel?



[17:04] Discarding armor that no longer serves us.



[21:26] Curiosity as midlife’s superpower.



[22:53] There’s trauma for all of us.



[23:33] An 80/20 marriage hack.



[25:18] Decisions in a family-focused family.



[27:04] Parenting from compliance to commitment.



[29:31] Enter Edward O. Thorp.



[29:54] Edward’s background, and what drew him to apply mathematics to gambling.



[37:04] Edward’s first blackjack trip to Vegas, reference materials used, and his meeting with Claude Shannon at MIT.



[40:13] Edward and Claude devised a method to beat roulette using the first wearable computer, according to MIT.



[42:16] Despite being 89, Edward looks great for his age; he discusses his approach to staying in shape over the years.



[50:22] Edward explains how he got into finance and investing, and the people he met along the way.



[59:25] Edward shares what convinced him that Warren Buffett would one day be the richest man in the world after their first meeting.



[1:03:58] Edward discusses the frameworks he would teach in an investing seminar for modern students, including those without a strong math aptitude.



[1:08:52] Edward shares lessons learned from investing that are transferable to other areas of life.



[1:11:02] Edward, a long-term thinker at 89, offers advice for those who struggle to think beyond the short-term.



[1:15:40] Edward explains how he discovered something suspicious about the Madoff brothers’ business practices 17 years before others caught on.



[1:24:17] Exploring mental models of externalities, the tragedy of the commons, and fundamental attribution errors.



[1:33:32] Edward recommends reading and listening material for those who want to enact positive change in the world, politically or evolutionarily.



[1:38:51] Edward shares which investors, besides Warren Buffett, impress him and why.



[1:42:52] Edward discusses how he balanced growing a business with personal life and what led him to wind things down.



[1:47:56] Edward defines independence and shares how he spent his time after winding down the investment side of his life.



[1:49:30] Edward shares what he’s particularly curious about learning at the moment.



[1:51:40] Reflecting on a conversation between Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut, and other parting thoughts.




SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE



Connect with Brené Brown:



Website  |  Unlocking Us Podcast  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Instagram  |  LinkedIn




Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Brené Brown



Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown



The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brené Brown



What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It) | HBR



Narcissism and Other Defenses Against Shame | Psychology Today



Rush



Brené Brown on Vulnerability and Home Run TED Talks | The Tim Ferriss Show #100



Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach | Amazon



Understanding the Significance of Pandora’s Box | ThoughtCo



The Midlife Unraveling | Brené Brown



Topo Chico Mineral Water | Amazon




Connect with Edward O. Thorp:



Website  |  Twitter




Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One by Edward O. Thorp | Amazon



Beat the Market: A Scientific Stock Market System Edward O. Thorp and Sheen T. Kassouf (PDF) | ResearchGate



A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Edward O. Thorp | Amazon



University of California



How to Play Blackjack | Vegas How To



Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart by Edward O. Thorp | Chasing the Frog



Kelly Criterion | Investopedia



A Brief Journey Inside the IBM 704 | Archival History of Computing at MIT



National Academy of Sciences



A Favorable Strategy for Twenty-One by Edward O. Thorp | ResearchGate



American Mathematical Society



The Stockpicker’s Burden, and Other Lessons | Barron’s



How a Math Professor Led a Revolution in Las Vegas | RTD



How to Play Roulette | Vegas How To



10 of the Best Compound Exercises for Muscle and Strength | Openfit



Aerobics Program for Total Well-Being: Exercise, Diet, and Emotional Balance by Kenneth H. Cooper | Amazon



Yes, Race Walking Is an Olympic Sport. Here’s How It Works. | Vox



New Mexico State University



Stock Warrants vs. Stock Options | Investopedia



Black-Scholes Model | Investopedia



Cboe Global Markets



How Warren Buffett Made Berkshire Hathaway a Winner | Investopedia



Equity | Investopedia



Market Efficiency | Investopedia



Risk | Investopedia



Preventing the Spread of the Coronavirus | Harvard Health



The 4% Rule | Investopedia



Cryogenics | Wikipedia



Meet the People Who Want to Live — And Keep Their Wealth — Forever | Policy Genius



Global Management Consulting | McKinsey & Company



Collar | Investopedia



The Card Sharp Who Cottoned onto Madoff’s Fraud in 1991 | Forbes



Madoff Investment Scandal | Wikipedia



Bear Stearns | Wikipedia



National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) | Investopedia



Why Can’t You Go Faster Than Light? | Fermilab



Externality | Investopedia



Svante Arrhenius, the Man Who Foresaw Climate Change | OpenMind



Tragedy Of The Commons | Investopedia



Elon Musk Thinks Every Child Should Learn About These 50 Cognitive Biases | Inc.



Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger | Amazon



Psychology of Human Misjudgement According to Charlie Munger | LinkedIn



Fundamental Attribution Error | Ethics Unwrapped



Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman | Amazon



Carbon Tax | Wikipedia



Moral Foundations of Politics by Ian Shapiro | Coursera



The Wolf at the Door: The Menace of Economic Insecurity and How to Fight It by Michael J. Graetz and Ian Shapiro | Amazon



Who Lost Biden’s Agenda? Democrats Offer Competing Theories for Failure of ‘Build Back Better’ | NBC News



Poll Finds 96 Percent Support Social Security | AARP



The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail by Ray Dalio | Amazon



Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama | Amazon



The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama | Amazon



A Quantitative Investment Management Company | Renaissance Institutional



The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman | Amazon



Leading Global Market Maker | Citadel Securities



Princeton Newport Partners | Wikipedia



Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood by Marsha Sinetar | Amazon



Incerto: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Amazon



Catch-22 by Joseph Heller | Amazon



Kurt Vonnegut on the Secret of Happiness: An Homage to Joseph Heller’s Wisdom | The Marginalian




PEOPLE MENTIONED




Tara Brach



Esther Perel



Steve Alley



Herbert Hoover



Claude Shannon



John Selfridge



Tom Wolfe



Kenneth H. Cooper



Sheen T. Kassouf



Warren Buffett



Fischer Black



Myron S. Scholes



Nassim Nicholas Taleb



Robert C. Merton



Jim Cramer



Peter Madoff



Bernie Madoff



Albert Einstein



Charlie Munger



Svante Arrhenius



Garrett Hardin



Elon Musk



Daniel Kahneman



Ian Shapiro



Joe Biden



Ray Dalio



Francis Fukuyama



Jim Simons



Kenneth C. Griffin



Frank Meyer



Marsha Sinetar



Joseph Heller



Kurt Vonnegut

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