In the 1970’s, social scientists made two assumptions about people. One, people are mostly rational. Two, when they behaved irrationally, it was because emotions such as anger or fear intervened. Behavioral scientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky managed to demonstrate that both of these assumptions were false. People did not act rationally most of the … Read more
In The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty, behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores the idea of deception and self-deception, through a series of experiments that either he has learned about or has done with his research team. Self-deception and Self-help Like overconfidence and optimism, there are benefits to self-deception. An exaggerated belief in oneself can help you … Read more
Joshua Waitzkin is an American chess player, martial arts competitor, and author of The Art of Learning. He was recognized as a prodigy, and won the U.S. Junior Chess championship in 1993 and 1994 before becoming a world champion in Tai Chi. This book is his explanation of the principles underlying his learning process. The Process … Read more
Taleb’s Incerto concludes with Skin In The Game. This book makes the argument that some people, who are not engaging directly with reality, are not capable of understanding risks. This class of people includes academics (especially in the social sciences), bureaucrats, and advisers. What these people have in common is that they are isolated from … Read more
The Prince by Machiavelli is an introduction to realpolitik. It’s important to understand that Machiavelli’s audience is a prince. Few can consider themselves princes in the modern world, and many of insights in this book involve warfare, how to successfully build and maintain an empire, and how to treat your subjects – none of these are … Read more
Antifragile is about how we should measure risk. Taleb starts by providing a basic definition that will be the focus of the entire book. Some events or objects are anti-fragile. Others are fragile. Something that is fragile is vulnerable to stress. Ex: A porcelain coffee cup. A robust object can withstand shocks. Ex: A steel door. … Read more
Coke’s Marketing Success Is Manipulation Wrong? Decades ago, Pepsi launched an advertising campaign that had people drink Pepsi and Coke from two different cups that were label-less and asked them to decide which drink they preferred. The results showed that Pepsi was preferred to Coke. This prompted Coke to launch a campaign that slightly altered … Read more
The 37% Rule The 37% rule defines a time to stop searching when looking for an apartment, or a partner. The idea here is to figure out how much time you have and stop your search when 37% of that time has elapsed and commit to a choice. The Explore/Exploit Trade-off This tells us about … Read more