Undoing Project

“It is sometimes easier to make the world a better place than to prove you have made the world a better place.” – Amos Tversky

I read Michael Lewis’ book Undoing Project during the last week of March and April 2017, mostly during various flights between London, Doha and Dubai. I was already familiar with Lewis’ writing after having read his book Flash Boys the previous Easter. I was also somewhat familiar with Daniel Kahneman, having read about half(!) of his famous book Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Undoing Project is a biography of the collaboration between two Israeli psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The papers published by the two are widely recognized to have had a defining impact in the field of behavioral economics and decision-making. Kahneman went on to win the Nobel Prize for economics in 2002 after successfully introducing or “injecting” their theories on psychology (how we are irrational) into economics (where it is believed that we are rational!).

In short, Tversky’s and Kahneman’s experiments and theories relate to the functioning of our operating system (aka the “brain”!). They show how unaware we are of its shortcomings and, as a result, often make “bad” decisions. What influences those bad decisions are a long series of built-in biases that are constantly at play without us realizing them. H*owever, these biases are predictable, and hence, errors to some extent should be as well. They argued and proved that humans decide on many things emotionally, and not rationally – the trick was to recognize those habits and not confuse one for the other. (Thinking, Fast and Slow goes a little deeper into the subject, making note of two systems in our brain and how we jump from one to the other).

Their theories and biases were backed by real-life examples that were easy to grasp (and which are explained in a lot more detail in Thinking, Fast and Slow). For instance, when you ask people what they think is the ratio of gun homicides to gun suicides in the United States, most of them will guess that gun homicides are much more common, but the truth is that gun suicides happen about twice as often (an example of the “availability” bias – the easier it is for us to recall instances in which something has happened, the more likely we are to assume it is). Another example is the “halo effect,” in which thinking about one positive attribute of a person or thing causes observers to perceive other strengths that aren’t really there (e.g., during job interviews). My favorite is the anchoring bias, where most people, when asked to quickly guess the answer to 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1, will give a higher number than to 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8 (8 x 7 are perceived by our brains as larger numbers than 1 and 2).

The book is a detailed account of the careers of two very different brilliant academics, set amongst a difficult time in history (WWII and then Arab/Israel wars). Tversky was an outgoing, self-assured extrovert, while Kahneman always doubted himself, kept to himself, and found Tversky’s confidence almost liberating. And they laughed a lot. Kahneman said, “Amos was always very funny, and in his presence, I became funny as well, so we spent hours of solid work in continuous amusement.” The fact that they were so different and didn’t take each other too seriously may have been the secret sauce of their long-lasting partnership.

Sadly, the collaboration didn’t last forever. In the 1980s, they started drifting apart in their thoughts and interests, with a sense of jealousy and egos interfering, as both became famous in unequal proportions. Eventually, they separated forever after Amos was diagnosed with cancer. Michael Lewis has an easy and captivating writing style, which makes even the technical aspects of the book easy to understand. It is quite different from “Flash Boys,” where there seems to be a clearer plot. I am now looking forward to rereading and finally completing “Thinking Fast and Slow.” Understanding the author’s background will undoubtedly make it even more interesting to read.