Michael Lewis On How Behavioural Economics Changed The World

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Michael Lewis is one of the most successful non-fiction authors alive. He has been acclaimed as a genius by Malcolm Gladwell and as the best current writer in America by Tom Wolfe. In a series of titles that have sold 9 million copies worldwide, he has lifted the lid on the biggest stories of our times, enthralling readers with his knack for humanising complex subjects and giving them the page-turning urgency of the best thrillers. Liar's Poker is the cult classic that defined Wall Street during the 1980s; Moneyball was made into a film with Brad Pitt; Boomerang was a breakneck tour of Europe’s post-crunch economy; and The Big Short was made into a major Oscar-winning film starring Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell.
In November 2017 Lewis came to the Intelligence Squared stage, where he was joined by Stephanie Flanders, former economics editor at the BBC. Discussing the themes of his latest book, The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World, they explored the extraordinary story of the relationship between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky - a collaboration which created the field of behavioural economics. This is the theory which shows that human beings are not the rational creatures we imagined ourselves to be, and has revolutionised everything from big data to medicine, from how we are governed to how we spend, from high finance to football. It won Kahneman the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 - the first time the award had gone to a psychologist.

[@TheBookofrhymes]

“People don’t decide between things, they decide between the description of things” 💎

[@milknoxious]

timestamp?

[@amaetfacquodvis2450]

@@milknoxious 46:00

[@eagillum]

Skip to 33:11 if you've already watched Malcolm Gladwell interviewing Lewis.

[@chefawkes]

Thank you!

[@antentil]

"Thinking Fast and Slow" is full of brilliant ideas, but kind of dry; In the "The Undoing project", Michael Lewis weaved these ideas with Amos and Danny biographies and made these ideas accessible for larger audience

[@conors4430]

I could listen to Michael speak all day. Very informative, very funny, self-deprecating, and able to explain quite complex things to an audience

[@MarkLawsonY3K]

Nice crowd and as one of the 70k+ online views...How enjoyable. I'm so proud to see the excellence and critically choose to spend my time here this evening. mark

[@hankbenson7535]

I'm almost certainly not the the first to note that had Lewis not missed the principal economic lesson of "Moneyball" when writing it, he wouldn't have made millions subsequently writing "The Undoing Project." He made the most of his mistakes, so yes, he understands business.

[@DixonParry-uf2rx]

R.I.P. Danny

[@nthperson]

Yes, it is important to understand that people do not behave as mainstream (i.e., neoclassical) economics asserts. "Economic Man" is a fiction. Henry George, over a century ago, wrote that the only generalization that could be made about human behavior is that we "seek to satisfy our desires with the least exertion; and, therefore, we attempt to monopolize natural opportunities." The outcome is that our systems of law and taxation have been established by those who have held power and wealth to protect the privileges they have enjoyed. Politics dictates economic outcomes. And, our politics is sadly controlled and has been controlled since the time of the Founding Fathers by a rentier elite.

[@nthperson]

That is one aspect of reality. I do not see evidence that it is the only or even the primary motivation of our behavior.

[@nthperson]

It is a motivation for most business owners and managers, yes. But, only one motivation. Market share and increasing revenues per unit of expense is more important. Better to pay high wages and provide excellent benefits to a work force that is highly motivated than to measure success by high little one has to pay to people. It is a sad state of morality if government has to impose laws that require businesses to treat people as valued human beings rather than replaceable widgets.

[@debrasnook4714]

55:18 lead up to when are you going to stop slacking? from the audience . He answers "when the minute i try to be worthy < in someone else's eyes.>.. i cease to be useful." he know his own value and boundaries ..!

[@kool1678]

Great talk. Some of the later audience questions were really thought provoking. The first two audience questions sadly unbecoming... Extremely surprised to learn that he hasn't even heard of Dan Ariely.

[@KelRiever]

Button Ring is the best! This is a brilliant interview.

[@jimallen8186]

“Amos knew there was a council of economic advisors and said there should be a council of psychological advisors.” Senator Fulbright wrote the same in Arrogance of Power.

[@thedancingveganatheist6310]

Do you have a citation? I couldn't find online.

[@treyquattro]

that squeaky chair! It's driving me mad, I don't know how Michael Lewis put up with it for the best part of 90 minutes! Really IQ^2: Could Do Better.

[@shelleymartin1451]

When he said that none of these ideas or concepts are anything any used car salesman wouldn't instinctively know!

[@conors4430]

It almost boils down to I think therefore I am. You know you exist, everything else is always open to interpretation

[@MarkLawsonY3K]

Mr. Lewis must be the story teller of the Noam Chomsky continuum. IMHO. Lawson

[@papersharp09]

If anyone knows feel free to comment on my page or post a response to this comment. What is Michael Lewis's definition of economics. Here he tends to, as many do, differentiate economics from psychology where this term is more psychologically based than say business or financial.

[@koendevriendt6120]

quite interesting.

[@mikec1651]

I enjoyed Michael Lewis and I enjoyed this presentation. One of a thousand things that flashed through my mind as the camera panned through the audience was that i didn't notice any Asian faces. It is unusual at any academic event not to see a healthy representation of the Asian, Eastern populations. I know it's an odd thought given everything but still. m

[@debrasnook4714]

1:02:47 - the naritive changes... "parts work" my IFS influence says we can change these illisions. by understanding out parts that are invisted.

[@douglassarbaugh7122]

What Lewis does not know is that Spelke's work at Harvard has gotten to the bottom of the psychology. Anyone going down that road will change the world. Good luck!.

[@debrasnook4714]

58:25 mm example - Daniel Kahneman

[@ironmaidenforlife29]

30:00

[@ironmaidenforlife29]

48

[@garyraab9132]

Beautiful conversation. The human brain really is the Schrödinger cat experiment! To get to the beauty of this conversation one needs some conceptualization of quantum mechanics. 47:27

[@John-lf3xf]

Gary Raab yea no

[@douglassarbaugh7122]

You are closer to the most profound insight than you can imagine.

[@jeffreygnolan7012]

To

[@ironmaidenforlife29]

45

[@ULTD8]

famous amos

[@chrism.1131]

43:00 How do you undo the tragedy that is… Donald Trump?

[@feorh1919]

Is the girl blind?