Apollo Robbins, The World’s Most Well-known Pickpocket — Pickpocketing the Secret Service, Manipulating Consideration, Well-known Con Artists, The Psychology of Deception, Self-Protection Strategies, The Secret Language of Thieves, and Extra (#699)


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“After we lose, we’re extra curious. And after we win, we’re much less interested in why we’re profitable.”

Apollo Robbins

Apollo Robbins (@ApolloRobbins) is sometimes called “The Gentleman Thief.” He first made nationwide information when he pick-pocketed the Secret Service whereas entertaining a former U.S. President. Forbes has known as Robbins “an clever manipulator of consciousness,” and Wired has written that “he might steal the pockets of a person who knew he was going to have his pocket picked.” 

Robbins’ leisure credentials embrace the Warner Bros. movie Focus, with Will Smith and Margot Robbie, together with appearances in Brooklyn 99, and the TNT sequence Leverage. He was a producer and co-host for Nationwide Geographic’s Mind Video games, which was nominated for an Emmy for Excellent Informational Sequence. Robbins applies his experience in magic and misdirection past leisure, pulling again the curtain to point out how the rules behind these illusions can improve strategic pondering and decision-making. 

His contributions to consideration and notion analysis have been revealed in Scientific American Thoughts and Nature Critiques Neuroscience. He has delivered lectures at Harvard Kennedy College, MIT Sloan College of Administration, and the Society of Neuroscience. He has been profiled by The New Yorker and featured in The New York Occasions, The Atlantic, Nationwide Geographic, and The Wall Avenue Journal. Robbins’ TED Speak, “The Artwork of Misdirection,” is ranked within the 20 most-watched TED Talks of all time and has been hailed by the TED editors as a revelation within the flaws of human notion. 

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#699: Apollo Robbins, The World’s Most Well-known Pickpocket – Pickpocketing the Secret Service, Manipulating Consideration, Well-known Con Artists, The Psychology of Deception, Self-Protection Strategies, The Secret Language of Thieves, and Extra


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Need to hear one other episode that includes somebody who sees the world via a magic lens? Hearken to my dialog with World Champion of Magic Simon Coronel by which we mentioned radical earliness, the Magic Fortress, gauging viewers notion and discovering steadiness earlier than a present, ugly crying via victory, hotbeds of magical innovation, why studying magic may be so daunting for a newbie, and rather more.

#679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Fortress, Discovering Glitches in Actuality, Studying Methods to Use Your Personal Mind, and Worshiping on the Altar of Surprise

What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know within the feedback.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Join with Apollo Robbins:

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SHOW NOTES

  • [07:51] Was Apollo a naturally dextrous wunderkind?
  • [10:26] The affect of Apollo’s blind minister father.
  • [14:10] Apollo’s slide towards agnosticism.
  • [17:24] Ben Stone enters the image.
  • [21:08] Taking in orphaned animals as a teen.
  • [23:31] An early lesson on the worth of cash.
  • [25:20] Bear in a field.
  • [28:19] Seeing magic as a ticket to the bigger world.
  • [30:55] Shoplifting for enjoyable, revenue, and schooling.
  • [32:19] Equivoque magic and Jazz-based mentalism.
  • [38:09] A magic e-book membership and a year-round Santa.
  • [44:10] Apollo’s first fateful journey to Vegas.
  • [52:14] A false accusation results in an actual job and a vampire code.
  • [55:27] Jimmy Carter and the Secret Service.
  • [1:03:44] The professionals and cons of changing into legendary.
  • [1:05:39] Educational accolades.
  • [1:08:01] A sauce much less secret isn’t essentially much less wealthy.
  • [1:09:28] Recovering when the reps get tough.
  • [1:11:12] Sheet music versus jazz.
  • [1:14:10] The introduction to — and enduring affect of — Apollo’s spouse, Ava Do.
  • [1:22:27] Notion science perceived however not but entered into the lexicon.
  • [1:26:16] The importance of Apollo’s silver ring.
  • [1:27:01] Assembly (and stealing from) Penn Jillette.
  • [1:29:10] Demonstrating the arrogance of a con man.
  • [1:33:03] Hallmarks that differentiate Apollo’s fashion.
  • [1:40:14] Who has the benefit with arguments within the Robbins family?
  • [1:41:18] 40 Elephants within the fashionable world.
  • [1:42:52] Instructing youngsters in regards to the cons — and execs — of deception.
  • [1:45:50] Paltering and puffery.
  • [1:49:14] Perceptual shaping and alter elevating.
  • [1:51:14] Slick re-thievery.
  • [1:54:01] Influential studying.
  • [1:56:38] Whiz Mob.
  • [1:59:22] How is a staff of pickpockets organized?
  • [2:04:54] The pandemic of the Dunning-Kruger impact.
  • [2:08:37] Finest practices to keep away from changing into a goal for theft.
  • [2:11:14] The Phantasm of Data Mission.
  • [2:15:28] The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson and different noteworthy charlatans.
  • [2:19:06] Rod the Hop, Kevin Mitnick, and Whizmob Inc.
  • [2:23:11] How one phrase could make a distinction to an impressionable baby.
  • [2:26:38] Parting ideas.

MORE APOLLO ROBBINS QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“When you possibly can’t stroll the identical as everybody else, you find yourself watching everybody else. You grow to be a individuals watcher, and there’s numerous commonality between animals and folks. You begin to do numerous what I name perspective shifting, of leaping into their head to suppose, ‘Why would they make that call?’”
— Apollo Robbins

“‘Boring’ signifies that your creativeness is damaged. So that you’ve acquired to discover a option to do it, you’ve acquired to search out one thing to do, and also you’ve acquired to make use of your creativeness higher.”
— Apollo Robbins

“I discovered that lore can take you so quick thus far, but additionally it may well encapsulate what individuals suppose you might be versus what you might be. And it may be onerous to underpromise and overdeliver when individuals have this expectation of what you are able to do.”
— Apollo Robbins

“After we lose, we’re extra curious. And after we win, we’re much less interested in why we’re profitable.”
— Apollo Robbins

“Deception is a social lubricant. It occurs on a regular basis round us, from the second we placed on make-up to one thing else. So, whether or not it’s a defeat for most cancers by utilizing decoy cells, there’s all these items which have a cause. Nevertheless it’s about your intent, and that’s the massive factor.”
— Apollo Robbins

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