009: Paul Craven on skill vs luck and Aristotle's rhetorical triangle

Welcome to Part 2 of my interview with behavioural economics expert Paul Craven. After almost 30 years in asset management working for the city’s biggest names, Paul’s passion is understanding “how real people make real decisions in the real world.” Paul gives over 50 talks a year around the world to audiences from investors to doctors to lawyers to entrepreneurs explaining the tricks our minds play. Check out Paul’s website logo for one of them.

If you missed Part 1 of this interview, you can find it here. There, we left off on the question of generalisation vs. specialization; and that’s where we pick up Part 2.

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In this episode, we discuss:

• The benefits of a polymathic approach to life
• Transactions vs. relationships
• Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle 
• Skill vs. luck and
• Minimising errors vs. maximising winners

Books referenced in the podcast

• Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion (new and expanded), by Robert Cialdini
• Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein
• Alchemy: The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformity, by Rory Sutherland
• Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

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• Podcast music: Tamsin Waley-Cohen's Mendelssohn's violin concerto