This post is going to be a bit weird, but bear with me.

From www.m-w.com :

Main Entry: dif·fer·en·ti·ate
Pronunciation: “dif-&-’ren(t)-shE-”At
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -at·ed; -at·ing
transitive verb

And I’m especially using the meaning

2 : to mark or show a difference in : constitute a difference that distinguishes

Let me tell you why differentiation is important.

It is to find what separates one situation from the others. To find differences, or rather to specifically find what matters here. “How is A different from B?” or perhaps “What, in A, should I be focusing on?” To be able to think about the things that make a difference, like dismissing your own two cards and focusing on the overall strategy - like you would in the late stages of a tourney with a low M.

That’s to differentiate.

So my top pair, third kicker, is raised on the river after I’ve bet three barrels into the guy on the button. Should I call?

Quick analysis: I have top pair, third kicker. But that’s barely even interesting at this point. The raise is either a much stronger hand than mine or it’s nothing. I essentially have a bluff catcher. Is he bluffing?

Wait - how did I decide that he either has a really strong hand or is bluffing? Because river raises are almost always either bluffs or strong hands. I’ve performed an important differentation - I’ve dismissed the actual strength of my hand as unimportant because at this point it’s good enough to know that I can beat a bluff. Being able to not worry about whether or not he may have a better kicker than me is useful because it saves me a lot of mind power that I have better use for. In this case, I’ll think about whether or not he’s bluffing instead.

Finding the distinguishing features of a situation helps us make better decisions. The distinguishing features of the hand example above that will make me call or fold is ultimately going to be the pot odds and my opponent’s bluffing frequency.

When I see advice that I disagree with, it’s almost always a case of someone who has failed to find what I think are the distinguishing features of that hand. They’re stuck on how it’s “only a pair” when our own hand doesn’t matter at all. Or they’re stuck on how it’s an “obvious raise” because there’s a straight draw on the table and we should protect against it, when it’s a complete rock who re-raised preflop and therefore almost certainly doesn’t have 7-5 or 9-7 in the hole.

We’re presented with tons of information in every hand we play. Learning how to dismiss the pieces that don’t matter effectively allows us to focus much more on the pieces that DO matter. And that will help us make better decisions.

Hopefully, it should be obvious to all of you that the lesson I’m trying to convey here holds true not just in poker, but in all walks of life. Being good at finding out what’s important is a great skill for any person in any field to have. I’m known at work to insist on how getting stuck on the things that don’t matter is the greatest expense we have. It seems to me that it’s also a great expense for many poker players.