Sky King's Mental Playground: Building a Blueprint for Success, Whatever that Might Mean for You

 

Chris Sparks sits down with his good friend Sky King on Mental Playground. Chris and Sky discuss Chris’s career as a professional poker player and running his boutique consultancy Forcing Function.

Mental Playground is a paywalled podcast, but Sky felt this podcast was so important that he wanted to give anyone who chooses to listen a free membership for life. Choose the Free “Yeonmi Park” option to sign up and listen on your favorite podcast platform.

Audio recording, resources mentioned, and show notes below.

Topics Covered:

  • Miyamoto Musashi and how he relates to Chris Sparks’s professional life (0:09)

  • The explore/exploit method (3:46)

  • How to create a presence that has an impact (6:26)

  • Psychological “tells” of your body. (15:31)

  • Decision-Making and Mental Models (26:28)

  • Anti-Productivity: how to do more (44:08)

  • The Value Litmus Test (1:05:49)

  • Substance Control (1:13:44)

Takeaways:

1. Simulate, then decide.

Simulate the outcome of your decision before you make it. Imagine we’re talking about how well your decision went one year from now. What are three reasons why that decision might have gone so well? Foster an environment where the things that need to happen, will happen.

The same concept applies for “Murphy Jitsu,” only inverted. One year from now, your decision didn’t pan out at all. What are three things that could have caused that outcome? How can you make those failure modes less likely?

2. Stoplight System

Simplify goal tracking with the stoplight system. Check in on each of your goals at the end of the month and mark them as green, yellow, or red. Green is a breakthrough. Yellow is a step in the right direction. Red is no progress.

Green light? Celebrate, then identify one way to double down on that success. Red light two months in a row? Time to course correct. Is this still a priority? If not, you can release the goal. If yes, what are you going to do to prioritize it?

3. Explore or Exploit?

Our lives are cyclical in nature, swinging between seasons of exploration and exploitation. When we explore, we are experimenting and intentionally dabbling. When we exploit, we identify an approach that works really well and get maximum from it.

For each area of your life, try to recognize, one, am I exploring or exploiting, and two, what signal do I need to see to switch?

 
Chris Sparks