PLAY PODCASTS
#174 Agency Is A Skill — Cate Hall on leaving law for poker, developing agency, deterministic vs probabilistic economy, risk, burnout, asking dumb questions, defining ambition, seeking real feedback, and the surface area of luck
Episode 186

#174 Agency Is A Skill — Cate Hall on leaving law for poker, developing agency, deterministic vs probabilistic economy, risk, burnout, asking dumb questions, defining ambition, seeking real feedback, and the surface area of luck

The Pathless Path with Paul Millerd

May 29, 20241h 2m

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (media.transistor.fm) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

Cate seemed to be fully entrenched on the default path — she had graduated from Yale and became the Supreme Court advocate on her way to becoming a partner in her law firm. But she didn't want to live the lives of the people around her. She pivoted hard, you could almost hear car brakes squeaking as she made the turn, and over a year she became the number one female poker player in the world. She later started art and perfume companies and led operations at Avlea — a pandemic medicine company. One might think she's simply a superhuman, and what she did is beyond the grasp of mere mortals, but Cate claims that agency is learnable and joins the podcast to tell us how.

🎥🍿 YOUTUBE: WATCH HERE

Links:

⌛TIMESTAMPS

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (02:27) - The scripts that Cate grew up with
  • (06:52) - Doors-opening credentials?
  • (10:43) - Leaving law for poker
  • (18:57) - Developing agency, learning form the others
  • (24:02) - Deterministic vs probabilistic economy
  • (27:13) - Risk and the diminishing prestige of the traditional paths
  • (31:30) - Burnout
  • (37:40) - Asking dumb questions
  • (42:19) - Defining ambition
  • (43:59) - Seeking actual feedback and how everything is learnable
  • (50:31) - The surface area of luck
  • (58:05) - Closing remarks


NEW: The Pathless Path Hardcover Premium Edition

📘 My 2nd Book Good Work: Learn More
📕 Buy My First Book, The Pathless Path (65k+ Sold): The Pathless Path
😁 Join 500+ In My Cozy Community: Pathless Path Community


📲Connect + Follow Paul

🙏Further Ways To Support The Podcast:

  • Accounting, Taxes, and Payroll for Your S-Corp (Ideal for $60k+ income): Collective
  • Looking for alternatives to traditional health insurance in the US? Check out Crowdhealth
  • I use Transistor to host this podcast. It rocks. Launch Yours Here
  • I record high-quality videos using Riverside: Sign Up Here
  • I use and love the Readwise reader for notes and highlights: Join Here for a 2 month trial

Topics

careerspaul millerdunconventional pathsdigital nomadcreator economyyoutubetwitter people