“People thought we were studying stupidity. But we were studying ourselves.”

20 Mar “People thought we were studying stupidity. But we were studying ourselves.”

Michael Lewis’s new book details the friendship that gave us behavioral economics

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. The optimist and the pessimist. The one supremely self-confident and the other dwelling in dark tunnels of self-doubt. They investigated the inner workings of the mind and the curious ways we make decisions, and made behavioral economics a field.

In his latest book, The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds, Michael Lewis (Moneyball; The Big Short) explores the story of Kahneman and Tversky. Through their collaboration and deep friendship they developed a psychological theory about the irrational economic man. This article, adapted from the book, gives a glimpse of the men—and the friendship—behind the ideas. And here’s Lewis in 2011, on Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, and how those ideas connect with Moneyball.