Today’s issue is from the desk of Mike Collins, Founder and CEO of Alumni Ventures.
Daniel Kahneman is often called “the godfather of behavioral economics” and is certainly one of the great thinkers of our time. A world-renowned psychologist, Nobel Prize winner, and best-selling author, Kahneman has thoughtfully explored the major gap between how economics predicts humans will act and what they actually do. I can safely say that his work—and the work he’s inspired—has been life-changing for me.
Here is a sampling of just a few of his groundbreaking theories.
READ
Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement
By Daniel Kahneman
In his latest book, Kahneman, along with Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein, confronts the detrimental effects of "noise"—variability in judgments that should be identical. This is a particular concern in fields like medicine and criminal justice, where decision making is literally a matter of life and death. It's a fantastic read, digging deep into why humans are so susceptible to their judgments being clouded. Better yet, Kahneman offers guidance on how we can improve our decisions, evaluations of people, and solutions to problems.
LISTEN
The TED Interview: Daniel Kahneman wants you to doubt yourself. Here’s why.
Hosted by Chris Anderson
In this interview with Head of TED Chris Anderson, Kahneman revisits some of the territory he covered in his 2010 TED Talk, “The riddle of experience vs. memory" However, this conversation is far more expansive than his previous lecture. In exploring “cognitive traps” and how we view our own minds, Kahneman touches on topics from confidence to happiness to intuition. The episode is so new that some podcast providers don’t have the audio available yet, so I’ve included the YouTube link below.
WATCH
Daniel Kahneman: Thinking Fast vs. Thinking Slow.
Hosted by Eric Shurenberg
This 6.5-minute video is from a 2013 interview, but it’s worth revisiting. Following the publication success of his now classic book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman sat down with Eric Shurenberg, Editor-in-Chief of Inc., to discuss systems of thought. System 1 is the fast, easy thinking, while System 2 is the slower, more complicated thinking. And the problem: When your systems clash about how you should respond to a known psychopath, for example. If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend doing so, but this video is a great bite-sized introduction to one of Kahneman’s signature concepts.