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LibraryThing member browner56
Over the years, I have been a big fan of Michael Lewis’ writing. At its best, his work on how financial markets function is insightful, engaging, and very interesting, regardless of whether the topic is broad-based (e.g., Liar’s Poker, The Big Short, Flash Boys) or more narrowly focused (e.g.,
All of this becomes relevant in consideration of Lewis’ The Undoing Project, which I found to be far less successful than his previous efforts. Nominally, the “big picture” he describes here involves the work of two Israeli psychologists—Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman—whose research into how people actually make decisions dramatically altered many fields of study, such as medicine, law, and economics. However, in this book, Lewis has effectively flipped his usual approach by emphasizing the personalities considerably more than the underlying concept itself.
That stylistic decision may have been due to the fact that these behavioral notions are by now quite well known; Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 and his own book Thinking, Fast and Slow is a brilliant summary of the voluminous work he did with Tversky. Unfortunately, the in-depth personality profiles of the two researchers were, to me, extremely ponderous and not really sufficient to drive the entire narrative, especially given the fairly cursory treatment afforded to their essential ideas. So, while The Undoing Project was not really a bad book, it was much less satisfying than almost anything else in the author’s past catalog.
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The New New Thing, Moneyball, The Blind Side). I also think that his typical modus operandi in exploring these issues is quite effective: While analyzing a sometimes complicated “big picture” concept as the main goal (e.g., revolutionizing professional sports management in Moneyball or how trading credit-related derivatives impacted the economy in The Big Short), he personalizes the story by profiling some of the key individuals involved (e.g., Billy Beane and Steve Eisman, respectively). This approach has worked so well, in fact, that several of the author’s books have made the unlikely transition into popular motion pictures.All of this becomes relevant in consideration of Lewis’ The Undoing Project, which I found to be far less successful than his previous efforts. Nominally, the “big picture” he describes here involves the work of two Israeli psychologists—Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman—whose research into how people actually make decisions dramatically altered many fields of study, such as medicine, law, and economics. However, in this book, Lewis has effectively flipped his usual approach by emphasizing the personalities considerably more than the underlying concept itself.
That stylistic decision may have been due to the fact that these behavioral notions are by now quite well known; Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 and his own book Thinking, Fast and Slow is a brilliant summary of the voluminous work he did with Tversky. Unfortunately, the in-depth personality profiles of the two researchers were, to me, extremely ponderous and not really sufficient to drive the entire narrative, especially given the fairly cursory treatment afforded to their essential ideas. So, while The Undoing Project was not really a bad book, it was much less satisfying than almost anything else in the author’s past catalog.
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LibraryThing member mbmackay
A delightfully written account of Tversky and Kahneman, the two psychologists who made a major contribution to Economics. Kahneman famously won the Nobel prize for Economics without ever taking an Economic subject at university.
The story of the two academics is fascinating, and needs no
The one irritant in this masterful writing style is the first chapter. Before introducing the main characters or their work, there is a lengthy diversion about American sports teams and the efforts of a few to improve judgements about player potential by the use of data. Of course, much of this is underpinned by the work of Tversky and Kahneman, but there is no attempt to make the link, and the whole chapter seems like an editor's misguided attempt to make the book more appealing to the lay reader. The book doesn't need it, and is diminished by it.
The story of the two academics is fascinating, and needs no
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embellishment to be a page turner, and this author obliges. The writing is so crisp and clear that it almost disappears and the reader absorbs the story. There is enough detail to flesh out the lives, with little speculation where the record is lacking.The one irritant in this masterful writing style is the first chapter. Before introducing the main characters or their work, there is a lengthy diversion about American sports teams and the efforts of a few to improve judgements about player potential by the use of data. Of course, much of this is underpinned by the work of Tversky and Kahneman, but there is no attempt to make the link, and the whole chapter seems like an editor's misguided attempt to make the book more appealing to the lay reader. The book doesn't need it, and is diminished by it.
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LibraryThing member pw0327
Michael Lewis is very good at what he does. In this case, it takes much of his writer acumen and perspicacious observations to make this book better than good.
The topic is: why do people make the decisions that they do? A subject that he is quite acquainted with since his successful telling of the
While the subject matter piqued his interest, the story behind the two friends and their collaboration is what drives this story. It was pure and unadulterated love between two friends. It was the friendship of a lifetime, if we are lucky enough to find someone that we are so in tuned with in our working life.
To complicate things, Danny Kahneman had written a best seller titled Thinking: Fast and Slow. He had undertaken this book because he had received the Nobel prize in economics for the groundbreaking work that he and Tversky had done together over the years, but he got the Nobel and Tversky did not because he had passed away before the Nobel was awarded. Kahneman’s book is a dense but very readable- as readable as a research oriented book on human nature can be- tome on their collaborative partnership.
So Michael Lewis undertook a nearly impossible task, to combine a story of a friendship that is so complete while drilling down into the research in human behavior and doing the yeoman’s work of summarizing that work for the lay audience; AND do so without duplicating or infringing upon the book authored by one of his subjects,
By all accounts, he acquitted himself valiantly. This book is a clear eyed account of an admirable friendship and partnership. He was able to dig deep into their relationship, portray their collaboration honestly and also delve into what eventually led to the dissolution of that relationship. The pioneering work in psychology was also explained concisely but also precisely. No excessive words or digressions were employed in the recitation of the results; the experiments were explained cleanly and efficiently. The story of the research would seemingly be de-emphasized in view of the more audience pleasing aspect of the friendship, but Lewis managed to not have given short shrift to the academic results, a rather large component of the story.
In the end, the story worked in Lewis’ hands. He conveyed the emotions and pathos of the friendship while also regaled us with the significance and importance of the research. A very masterful accomplishment indeed.
The topic is: why do people make the decisions that they do? A subject that he is quite acquainted with since his successful telling of the
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disturbing and head scratching tendencies of major league baseball decision makers to base their decisions on anything but measureable metrics in Moneyball. Actually, it was due to the fact that many people kept telling him to read Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s work that he happened upon the two psychologists/economists. While the subject matter piqued his interest, the story behind the two friends and their collaboration is what drives this story. It was pure and unadulterated love between two friends. It was the friendship of a lifetime, if we are lucky enough to find someone that we are so in tuned with in our working life.
To complicate things, Danny Kahneman had written a best seller titled Thinking: Fast and Slow. He had undertaken this book because he had received the Nobel prize in economics for the groundbreaking work that he and Tversky had done together over the years, but he got the Nobel and Tversky did not because he had passed away before the Nobel was awarded. Kahneman’s book is a dense but very readable- as readable as a research oriented book on human nature can be- tome on their collaborative partnership.
So Michael Lewis undertook a nearly impossible task, to combine a story of a friendship that is so complete while drilling down into the research in human behavior and doing the yeoman’s work of summarizing that work for the lay audience; AND do so without duplicating or infringing upon the book authored by one of his subjects,
By all accounts, he acquitted himself valiantly. This book is a clear eyed account of an admirable friendship and partnership. He was able to dig deep into their relationship, portray their collaboration honestly and also delve into what eventually led to the dissolution of that relationship. The pioneering work in psychology was also explained concisely but also precisely. No excessive words or digressions were employed in the recitation of the results; the experiments were explained cleanly and efficiently. The story of the research would seemingly be de-emphasized in view of the more audience pleasing aspect of the friendship, but Lewis managed to not have given short shrift to the academic results, a rather large component of the story.
In the end, the story worked in Lewis’ hands. He conveyed the emotions and pathos of the friendship while also regaled us with the significance and importance of the research. A very masterful accomplishment indeed.
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LibraryThing member starkravingmad
Insights into behavioral economics; not his typical outstanding story
LibraryThing member ifisher
An interesting book on Decision Analysis. The more interesting story was the fascinating relationship between Kahneman and Tversky.
LibraryThing member annbury
Michael Lewis's account of the ideas of two Israeli economists -- Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky -- and of the friendship within which those ideas were generated is a great introduction to their ideas, a moving personal story, and a great read all around. The importance of Kahneman and Tversky to
Lewis shows how their ideas developed and became widely known, a fascinating story in itself. But behind that is the story of the relationship between the two men. Other reviewers have described it as an intellectual love affair, and so it was, with all the joys and sorrows of the more conventional kind. Lewis's two central characters are presented to us in all their humanity, capable of great things and painful faults, vision and blindness, love and selfishness. It's a brilliant tour de force, and well worth reading. And for those of you who get hooked, the next step is Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow", a tougher read but one of the most important books I have ever read.
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the discipline of economics is difficult to overestimate. What's the fundamental premise of classical economics? Homo economus, a rational actor who bases his choices on accurately perceived and correctly evaluated benefits and costs? And what was the great discovery of Kahneman and Tversky? That homo economus doesn't exist, since real live humans are subject to massive errors of perception and evaluation. Over the several decades, that has begun to change the very nature of the study of economics. Lewis shows how their ideas developed and became widely known, a fascinating story in itself. But behind that is the story of the relationship between the two men. Other reviewers have described it as an intellectual love affair, and so it was, with all the joys and sorrows of the more conventional kind. Lewis's two central characters are presented to us in all their humanity, capable of great things and painful faults, vision and blindness, love and selfishness. It's a brilliant tour de force, and well worth reading. And for those of you who get hooked, the next step is Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow", a tougher read but one of the most important books I have ever read.
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LibraryThing member nicdevera
Normally I prefer just the facts over biography, but the amazing saga of Kahneman & Tversky's love story bromance is almost Shakespearean
LibraryThing member brakketh
Story of the relationship between Tversky & Kahneman the Israeli psychologists who first started systematising biases in prediction and decision making by humans.
LibraryThing member Opinionated
Some familiarity with the work of Tversky and Kahneman is probably an advantage in enjoying the story of their friendship and collaboration. Other than the ideas themselves - which you will find better addressed in Kahneman's own work Thinking, Fast and Slow, ironically given that Kahneman was the
Its a very interesting book especially when discussing the war time exploits of both men. Tvesky the war hero is one thing - Kahneman as an even semi competent commander seems again, vanishingly improbable. And its great to see two lions of psychology given pop icon treatment. Hopefully this book will be very widely read
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one who never wanted to write a "popular" book, and in the work of Thaler and Sunstein - the book savours the delicious improbability that two such different characters would ever have formed such a transformational partnership. Kahneman is shy, anti social and riddled with self doubt. Tversky is the bright light of every party, with such a towering intellect that, as one psychologist says, the faster you realise Tversky is smarter than you, the smarter you are. But yet they transformed psychology and transformed economics without being economists, and their influence is now felt everywhere. Any time you have to opt out, rather than opt in to a program, thats the work of Tversky and Kahneman (channelled through Cass Sunstein) right there. Every time you hear politicians talking nonsense about crime statistics, or sports commentators talking about "hot hands" or "streaks" thats the law of small numbers exerting its influenceIts a very interesting book especially when discussing the war time exploits of both men. Tvesky the war hero is one thing - Kahneman as an even semi competent commander seems again, vanishingly improbable. And its great to see two lions of psychology given pop icon treatment. Hopefully this book will be very widely read
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LibraryThing member bogreader
Listened to about half and enjoyed it, but felt that I was capturing too little of the information and moved on to music.
LibraryThing member addunn3
An interesting read about two Jewish men who transformed psychology. Some interesting information, but maybe a bit too much on the relationship between the two. Lewis does a good job telling a difficult story.
LibraryThing member Daniel.Estes
This is possibly the smartest and the most boring book Michael Lewis has ever written.
The argument is that people are mathematically less sure about their decisions than even they claim to be. The unsettling undertone, which is mentioned throughout, is that all aspects of life is more a game of
The argument is that people are mathematically less sure about their decisions than even they claim to be. The unsettling undertone, which is mentioned throughout, is that all aspects of life is more a game of
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chance than would seem. Evolutionary this makes complete sense but it flies in the face of our desire for order amidst the randomness. Chilling if you think about it. Show Less
LibraryThing member LukeS
The Undoing Project contains many charms, and chief among these is its full and intimate description of the friendship between Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky. These are the two pioneering psychologists who revolutionized decision theory and demonstrated its effect on economic thought. In Mr.
Michael Lewis tells his story with the enthusiasm of a newcomer to the subject. And these two innovative thinkers, who rattled the cages of the academic establishment in both psychology and economics, deserves this bight and spritely telling. The title refers to the emotional tug a person feels in the midst of regret - often people have the impulse to change an unfortunate circumstance or fact of their lives, because of its unpleasant consequences.
We follow the joint careers of Tversky and Kahneman as they discover each other: they become inseparable friends while performing a wholesale revamp of economic behavioral theory. They eventually drift apart, professional jealousy playing a small and perhaps misunderstood role in their separation. This book excels in its portrayal of the progress of their joint thought. It does a good job of showing just how revolutionary their thoughts were, and the consternation they generated in the economics community.
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Kahneman’s case, it led to the Nobel Prize in economics.Michael Lewis tells his story with the enthusiasm of a newcomer to the subject. And these two innovative thinkers, who rattled the cages of the academic establishment in both psychology and economics, deserves this bight and spritely telling. The title refers to the emotional tug a person feels in the midst of regret - often people have the impulse to change an unfortunate circumstance or fact of their lives, because of its unpleasant consequences.
We follow the joint careers of Tversky and Kahneman as they discover each other: they become inseparable friends while performing a wholesale revamp of economic behavioral theory. They eventually drift apart, professional jealousy playing a small and perhaps misunderstood role in their separation. This book excels in its portrayal of the progress of their joint thought. It does a good job of showing just how revolutionary their thoughts were, and the consternation they generated in the economics community.
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LibraryThing member annbury
great book, like many of his efforts. i have read Kahneman's book Thinking, Fast and Slow and i learned more from this.
he writes about how they came together and what it was like. I did not think that two people so different could have stayed together, but Lewis describes it beautifully.
he writes about how they came together and what it was like. I did not think that two people so different could have stayed together, but Lewis describes it beautifully.
LibraryThing member chasidar
Fascinating! And funny. I only wish I understood some of it more.
LibraryThing member foof2you
What you believe or think may not be so. The premise of this book is that what you see is not always what you get. Fascinating reading that makes you think twice about what you know and believe. A great story about how two unlikely people became life long friends and challenged each other think
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about the world a different way. Show Less
LibraryThing member ashergabbay
This book was recommended to me by the headmaster of my daughter’s school. I’m guessing it’s because I’m Israeli, and the book is about two Israelis. As is the case with many book recommendations, this turned out to be an excellent one.
Michael Lewis wrote the story of two Israeli
Lewis does a fabulous job of weaving the story of the separate, yet intertwined, lives of Kahneman and Tversky. He describes their joint work but also their personal relationship and some of the personal conflicts and dilemmas they faced. They had very different characters, but a huge respect for each other and a collaboration that one of their wives described as “stronger than marriage”. They devised simple experiments that showed how every person is affected by biases, regardless of their level of education or experience. Using examples from sports, academia, business, the military and much more, Lewis illustrates how these experiments uncovered previously unknown human traits. They did not continue working together after the mid 1980s, when they had a fallout, hence the “undoing” in the book’s title.
Tversky died from cancer in 1996, at the age of 59. Kahneman received the Nobel prize for Economics in 2002.
The closing chapter of the book brought a tear to my eyes, not something one expects when reading a book about psychology and economics. It is a testament to the moving power of this book, which fittingly for a book about psychologists, focuses on the human nature of these towering giants of academic brilliance.
Michael Lewis wrote the story of two Israeli
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psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who met in the late 1960s at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Their collaborative work, over a decade and a half, laid the foundations for what is known today as behavioural economics. It seems natural today for economists to explain human behaviour in terms of irrational decisions (see Dan Ariely’s books), but 40-50 years ago, the underlying assumption was that people were rational beings and that all economic decisions were made based on rational choices. When I studied economics at the Hebrew University in the 1990s, this assumption was still very much valid for most of what I was taught.Lewis does a fabulous job of weaving the story of the separate, yet intertwined, lives of Kahneman and Tversky. He describes their joint work but also their personal relationship and some of the personal conflicts and dilemmas they faced. They had very different characters, but a huge respect for each other and a collaboration that one of their wives described as “stronger than marriage”. They devised simple experiments that showed how every person is affected by biases, regardless of their level of education or experience. Using examples from sports, academia, business, the military and much more, Lewis illustrates how these experiments uncovered previously unknown human traits. They did not continue working together after the mid 1980s, when they had a fallout, hence the “undoing” in the book’s title.
Tversky died from cancer in 1996, at the age of 59. Kahneman received the Nobel prize for Economics in 2002.
The closing chapter of the book brought a tear to my eyes, not something one expects when reading a book about psychology and economics. It is a testament to the moving power of this book, which fittingly for a book about psychologists, focuses on the human nature of these towering giants of academic brilliance.
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LibraryThing member susan11
didnt quite understand it,needs a second reading
LibraryThing member abycats
Thorough analysis of a friendship between two brilliant men who, together, revolutionized attitudes toward the reliability of basing studies of decision-making purely on the concept of a "rational" person.
Personally, since statistics was one of my favorite college courses, i was slowed in reading
Personally, since statistics was one of my favorite college courses, i was slowed in reading
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this by my desire to thoroughly understand the concepts presented. That was what fascinated. Am not really sure how someone without that history would respond to the book -- probably just as a study of a friendship. Definitely worth my time. Show Less
LibraryThing member PeterGHarvey
Didn't really like - whilst interesting, rather repetitive and gushing, hence now at Oxfam Shop
LibraryThing member ajlewis2
Good biography of the two men. It covers some of their thought as well, but the book to read for that is _Thinking, Fast and Slow_ by Kahneman. I'm thankful I read that second book before this one. It made this one more worthwhile.
LibraryThing member asxz
Wow. At a time where it seems deeply uncool to venerate anything that comes from Israel, Lewis has written an amazing book about two Israeli academics that kinda changed the world.
This is a love story about two men who together offered the world insights and understanding that neither might have
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have influenced a generation of psychologists and economists. This is a terrific story, well told.
This is a love story about two men who together offered the world insights and understanding that neither might have
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arrived at alone. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have influenced a generation of psychologists and economists. This is a terrific story, well told.
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LibraryThing member deldevries
Well told! Details behind the published research (that I've read a whole bunch of!). Story telling as Michael Lewis is very capable of making interesting.
LibraryThing member nbmars
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, who trained as psychologists, have become famous for their work describing how the human mind works, particularly in how it sometimes deceives itself. I would call them “intellectuals” though rather than "psychologists" because their ideas have permeated
The two friends and colleagues explored many patterns in thought by which human beings deceive themselves, from over-generalizing good assessments about a person based on one particular positive aspect, to deducing a cause and effect relationship between things that may just be randomly coincident in time or place.
Perhaps their biggest contribution was to debunk the reigning economic theory that rational decision-making guides human decision making. Their work led to the now ascendant field of behavioral economics, represented most prominently by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. [See, for example, the book Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler.]
Their work was also summarized and popularized in Kahneman’s best seller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, which I also recently reviewed.
Michael Lewis has written a book that combines the biographies of the two men; the story of the long-lived and sometimes tempestuous relationship between them (Lewis calls it "a love story"); and an explanation of their work and how it impacted other fields. Lewis is an excellent writer who is able to digest and explicate Tversky’s and Kahneman’s sometimes difficult and arcane ideas. Moreover, he is able to make the reader care about the two protagonists as people as well as the source of important concepts. His concluding chapter, especially the last paragraph, is particularly moving.
(JAB)
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diverse fields such as economics, decision theory, law, medicine, political policy, and even sports. Kahneman received a Nobel Prize in economics; Tversky probably would have shared the award, had he survived. Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously. The two friends and colleagues explored many patterns in thought by which human beings deceive themselves, from over-generalizing good assessments about a person based on one particular positive aspect, to deducing a cause and effect relationship between things that may just be randomly coincident in time or place.
Perhaps their biggest contribution was to debunk the reigning economic theory that rational decision-making guides human decision making. Their work led to the now ascendant field of behavioral economics, represented most prominently by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. [See, for example, the book Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler.]
Their work was also summarized and popularized in Kahneman’s best seller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, which I also recently reviewed.
Michael Lewis has written a book that combines the biographies of the two men; the story of the long-lived and sometimes tempestuous relationship between them (Lewis calls it "a love story"); and an explanation of their work and how it impacted other fields. Lewis is an excellent writer who is able to digest and explicate Tversky’s and Kahneman’s sometimes difficult and arcane ideas. Moreover, he is able to make the reader care about the two protagonists as people as well as the source of important concepts. His concluding chapter, especially the last paragraph, is particularly moving.
(JAB)
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LibraryThing member evano
Michael Lewis has written often about applying data and reason to subjects often defined by unfounded "gut instincts". He's the perfect person then, to introduce the work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, the Israeli scientists who changed the way we think about the way human minds really think.
When you finish his book, you'll start noticing how often Kahneman and Tversky's work on decision theory pops up in areas of design, economics, politics and any other field that depends on an understanding of human psychology. You'll start questioning the reasons for the choices you and others make and you may even understand how people could think that fake news is real and real news fake. Kahneman's book, "Thinking, Fast & Slow" is now near the top of my must-reads.
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Besides explaining the research, Lewis also lets us see the way these two vastly different men had a way of thinking together that was full of more genius and love than the two of them working alone could ever achieve. When you finish his book, you'll start noticing how often Kahneman and Tversky's work on decision theory pops up in areas of design, economics, politics and any other field that depends on an understanding of human psychology. You'll start questioning the reasons for the choices you and others make and you may even understand how people could think that fake news is real and real news fake. Kahneman's book, "Thinking, Fast & Slow" is now near the top of my must-reads.
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Publication
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017]
Description
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred, systematically, when forced to make judgments in uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, revolutionized Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis's own work possible. Kahneman and Tversky are more responsible than anybody for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms. The Undoing Project is about a collaboration between two men who became heroes in the university and on the battlefield -- both had important careers in the Israeli military -- and whose research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. Amos Tversky was a brilliant, self-confident warrior and extrovert, the center of rapt attention in any room; Kahneman, a fugitive from the Nazis in his childhood, was an introvert whose questing self-doubt was the seedbed of his ideas. They worked together so closely that they couldn't remember whose brain originated which ideas, or who should claim credit. They flipped a coin to decide the lead authorship on the first paper they wrote, and simply alternated thereafter. This story about the workings of the human mind is explored through the personalities of two fascinating individuals so fundamentally different from each other that they seem unlikely friends or colleagues. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind's view of its own mind.… (more)
Media reviews
Lewis is the ideal teller of the story. [...] But he is also a vastly better raconteur than most other writers playing the explication game. You laugh when you read his books. You see his protagonists in three dimensions — deeply likable, but also flawed, just like most of your friends and family.
Awards
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2017)
Original publication date
2016
Physical description
362 p.; 25 inches