Part 1 - When the fear of losing is greater than the hope to gain

by agerard

Edit: This is my first independent, long-form post on IH that I'm experimenting with. I may do a bunch of these.

Edit2: You can find part 2 here.

We've all done this at some point. It's time to publish that draft. And it's time to release our MVP into the wild. We pull back and go - abort mission, abort mission!

We find it hard to change and to take risk. Why is that? And fair warning: some poker terms ahead.

Being marginally better

I've been playing poker more online since the lockdown began. I had a pair of 5s one day and had raised to the point I went all-in. Holy crap! I went all-in on a pair of 5s! I had raised pre-flop because I was so sure my hand was marginally better than the rest of the guys at the table.

And therein lies why it's so important that we play some of our hands rather than fold. You see that competitor over there? Guess what, he's not playing tonight. And even when he shows up, he's sitting at the far corner of the room.

I won the hand and the table that night by sheer optimism.

So next time you're finding it hard to hit that publish button, don't think about what you'll lose. Think about what you stand to gain.