Later in life, Kahneman would explain this error as a function of the availability heuristic. His father, like many others, misjudged how far the Germans would penetrate France. Though born in Tel Aviv in 1934, Kahneman grew up in Paris and was there for the outbreak of World War II. Daniel Kahnemanĭaniel Kahneman was a Holocaust survivor who, from an early age, developed an interest in human behavior, particularly in our capacity for error.

As individuals, they were unconventional thinkers, but together they amplified each other’s strengths, allowing them to upend behavioral psychology and change the way we understand the foibles of the human mind.

In psychology, Michael Lewis suggests that the quintessential duo was Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. In the second part, we’ll explore the three major theories formulated from their work: heuristics, prospect theory, and the concept of undoing. The first part of this guide will examine the collaboration of Tversky and Kahneman, with a focus on how their personal experiences led to the paths they took in their research. When Lewis looked into the psychologists in question, he found a whole new story that needed to be told. Sunstein (co-authors of Nudge and Noise) pointed out that the science Lewis referenced came out of the work of Kahneman and Tversky. The author, Michael Lewis, first rose to popularity with his book Moneyball about the use of statistical analysis in major league sports. By making us aware of our mental fallibility, Kahneman and Tversky gave us the tools to sharpen our thinking and avoid the pitfalls of unconscious bias. They identified systematic ways the mind fools itself, why we make irrational decisions, and how we reshape reality when the truth is too painful to bear. Yet both had a deep interest in the workings of the mind and were insightful, inquisitive thinkers with a knack for seeing flaws in ideas that everyone else took as given. Kahneman was reserved and given to self-doubt, while Tversky was brash, outgoing, and magnetic. On the surface, the two men couldn’t have been more different. The story of Tversky and Kahneman’s lives, told in The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis, is as riveting as the truths they uncovered. Keep reading for an overview of The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis. Their collaboration produced ideas that reshaped the way psychology understands the mind. Thanks to the groundbreaking research by two Israeli psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, we can get at the answers to these questions. Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here.ĭo you understand why you make the choices you do? How prone to error is the human mind? Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading. This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to 'The Undoing Project' by Michael Lewis.

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