"The brain is limited. There are gaps in our attention. The mind contrives to make those gaps invisible to us. We think we know things we don't. We think we are safe when we are not."
-Michael Lewis, channeling Amos Tversky in The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky, two really, really bright guys, had this mental partnership - a mind meld if you will - working. Thinking out loud together, they combined psychology and economics in way that had never been done before - essentially creating what we now know as "behavioral economics." It is difficult to imagine, but they were the first academics to notice, in a scientific way, that us humans are not always rational actors. Assuming we are can lead to some faulty models (image that) and enormous errors in judgment.
Lewis is one of my favorite writers. I hope he is one of yours, too.
Recommending this book.
Posts
On da list. E.
ReplyDelete