Why you should read the Undoing Project

The Undoing Project, the new Michael Lewis book (Big Short, Blindside, Moneyball), tells the story of Kahneman and Tversky – 2 Israeli psychologists who challenged assumptions of rationality and decision making.  I first heard Tversky at a Society of Medical Decision Making meeting.  He presented their work and emphasized the concepts of heuristics and biases.  Over the past 35 years, I read their papers, and when Kahneman’s book – Thinking Fast and Slow – appeared I read it carefully. Lewis takes us to the beginning of their collaboration.   He paints a picture of two very different men, from different backgrounds, different personalities and both absolutely brilliant thinkers.  He tells of their intellectual bromance, and explains how their mutual respect and challenging natures led to work so important that Kahneman eventually won the only Nobel Prize (in Economics) ever won by a psychologist.  Unfortunately, Tversky died young and could not win that award. If you already know their work, this book gives you great insight into how they developed their theories and research. If you do not know their work, this book provides a great introduction to their work.  Moreover, Lewis does a wonderful job of showing how their work has influenced other researchers in many fields, including medicine. Lewis tells captivating stories.  He develops the protagonists’ characters so that you know that you recognize them.  He takes their complex work, a...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs