Maria Konnikova is a Russian-American writer and psychologist. She has a B.A. in psychology and creative writing from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. She has worked as a television producer, written for several magazines and online publications, and authored two New York Times best-selling books. She primarily writes about psychology and its application to real life situations.
Early life
Maria Konnikova was born in Moscow, Russia in 1984 to Jewish parents. Konnikova was 4 years old when her family immigrated to the United States after the Soviet Union opened its borders to allow Jews to move to Israel. The Konnikovs chose to settle in the state of Massachusetts, outside Boston.
Education
Konnikova attended Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Massachusetts. After graduating from high school, Konnikova attended Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in psychology and creative writing. While studying at Harvard, Konnikova was mentored by psychologist and popular author Steven Pinker. Konnikova earned her Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University in 2013. She chose Columbia University so that she could work with psychologist Walter Mischel.
Career
Following her graduation from Harvard, Konnikova worked as a producer for the Charlie Rose Show, where she helped set up the segment "Brain Series".
Writer, author, and speaker
While working on the Charlie Rose Show, Konnikova also wrote the "Literally Psyched" column for Scientific American and the psychology blog "Artful Choice" for Big Think, both of which she is no longer involved with. Her writing has appeared in many publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, The Paris Review and The New Republic. In April 2013 she had an article published in The New Yorkerfor the first time; she continues to contribute regularly with articles about psychology and science., but took a more-than-year leave of absence to work on her third book. Konnikova's first book, , was published in January 2013 by Viking Press/Penguin Group, became a New York Times bestseller, and has been translated into 17 languages. Konnikova explained that she was first introduced to the character of Sherlock Holmes at a young age, when her father read Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories to her. She later read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories at an age that she calls "very impressionable" and states that "they certainly did change my life." Konnikova's second book, The Confidence Game, published by Viking Press/Penguin Group, made the New York Times best-seller list for February 2016 in the crime and punishment category, and the Canadian Best-Sellers List for non-fiction for the weeks ending 26 January and 2 February Konnikova's third book, The Biggest Bluff, was published on June 23, 2020, by Penguin Press; she had signed the book deal in March 2017 and submitted the manuscript in October 2019. The book follows her immersion into the world of poker and explores the role of chance in our everyday lives. Konnikova makes regular appearances on The Gistpodcast in her own segment called "Is that bullshit?"; and in early 2017, released her own 10-part podcast about con-artists and the lives they ruin, called The Grift. Konnikova has spoken at events including the IdeaFestival, TEDx, SXSW, and CSICon in 2016 and in 2017.
Poker player
Konnikova became interested in poker after reading John von Neumann’s work on game theory. She described it as a way to examine the mind’s responses to conditions that involve both skill and chance. Konnikova told The New York Times that "When I started this, I didn’t know how many cards were in a deck. I hate casinos. I have zero interest in gambling." In the late summer of 2016, Konnikova made contact with Erik Seidel, who agreed to become her coach for her goal of spending a year becoming a competitive poker player. Other players also agreed to let her watch them play. Konnikova noted, "It was a beautiful learning experience that really accelerated my ability to learn the game." After starting with $20 and $40 tournaments, Konnikova began playing in higher stakes tournaments. Her first major tournament, in April 2017, was the PokerStars tournament 2017 in Monte Carlo. In January 2018, she won the PCA National event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure No-Limit Hold'em Championship, wining $84,600. The win also came with a Platinum Pass worth $30,000 to the PokerStars Players Championship in January 2019. Her total earnings prior to the event were about $30,000. After her January 2018 win, Konnikova decided to delay work on her book, The Biggest Bluff, to compete in more poker tournaments with higher stakes She took up professional poker playing full-time. She became affiliated with beginning in the summer of 2018, PokerStars, an online gaming site; in June 2018, she became a PokerStars "Ambassador", with PokerStars sponsoring her in professional tournaments. Despite the fact that she had earned more than US$200,000 at the poker table by August 2018, she said that "I’m never going to stop being a writer. Why can’t I do both? I love poker. Why would I stop?" In November 2019, Konnikova and PokerStars “parted ways”.
