Woolly Thinking
What is woolly thinking? Simply put, it is any line of thought that contains a logical flaw — any deduction that, when you break it down, does not make sense. Even people who are generally considered intelligent may have thought processes that sometimes lead to bad conclusions. Most people fall victim to woolly thinking far more often than they realize.
For example, you might see someone walk into a shop and buy a candy bar. He then opens the candy bar, but it falls out of its packaging and onto the floor. At this point, some people will pick it up and eat it anyway; good luck to them (this isn't a book about hygiene!).
For the rest, the rational thing to do would be to buy another candy bar. After all, if someone wanted a candy bar five minutes ago, chances are he still wants one. If it was worth the money five minutes ago, surely it is still worth the money now. The only reason not to buy another one is if you were so poor that you could not afford it.
Yet many people won't! They will curse, then shrug their shoulders and move on without buying another candy bar. Somehow the fact that they bought and dropped a candy bar has made them unwilling to buy another one. If you asked them about this, they generally wouldn't be able to give you a reasonable account of their actions; they just don't want to pay more money for something they believe they have already paid for. In reality, they are not buying another one because of stubbornness. This is just one very narrow example of woolly thinking. As in the candy bar example, wooly thinking in everyday life does not usually result in catastrophe. Any kind of woolly thinking that has serious consequences is generally eliminated by necessity. The problem when playing poker is that every decision is important and every bit of woolly thinking will cost you money. Worst of all, you will probably not realize you are doing it and so will have no idea how much it is costing you.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of woolly thinking that is often brought to the poker table.
Post a comment