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The Undoing Project: A Friendship That…
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The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds (original 2016; edition 2016)

by Michael Lewis (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,122667,532 (3.84)38
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)
Member:GShuk
Title:The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
Authors:Michael Lewis (Author)
Info:W. W. Norton & Company (2016), Edition: 1, 368 pages
Collections:Library Toronto
Rating:****
Tags:Non-Fiction, Biography, Psychology

Work Information

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis (2016)

  1. 30
    Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Stbalbach)
    Stbalbach: About Kahneman's early days working with Tversky on cognitive biases, his work on prospect theory, and his later work on happiness.
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» See also 38 mentions

English (64)  Spanish (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (66)
Showing 1-5 of 64 (next | show all)
It is almost unimaginable for me to see the world and human fallibility without the lense Kahneman and Tversky built for me in the 1960's and 1970's in their work which has come to be the foundation of behavioural economics. In reading Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" last year I knew I was introducing myself to great thinker, as slow and painful as I found reading that book. What Michael Lewis brings to us in this book is the context for what made this miracle happen, a mix of quiet reason and war, friendship and betrayal, and above all, persistence. I leave reading this book, ironically, with a greater appreciation of how AI will improve our lives filling in for where the human mind falls short. Bring on the driverless cars. ( )
  MylesKesten | Jan 23, 2024 |
Great
  Dermot_Butler | Nov 8, 2023 |
page 47 of large print edition "But once you started talking about a guy's body and what it might be able to do on an NBA court..."
  pollycallahan | Jul 1, 2023 |
This book focuses on the academic intersection of mathematics, economics, and psychology in the context of a story of two Israelis who worked together in a groundbreaking way on these topics. The focus of their work was essentially how humans make decisions and why they are oftentimes incorrect even in the face of definitive answers (never mind uncertainty). The book spends a lot of time on the theories being developed and also on the relationship between the two men. The collaboration was incredibly intense and not always smooth.

I found the story about the relationship to be more engaging then the elaboration on the theories that were developed. This book is one that definitely requires concentration. Lewis explains the theories well, but I needed to read slowly, and even then, I wasn't always sure I was grasping it all. I really like math (but am not particularly savvy at it), and honestly, if you don't - - I'd say pass on this book.

Very well done, but I think the target market of readers for this one is on the smaller side. ( )
  Anita_Pomerantz | Mar 23, 2023 |
This is my first Michael Lewis book. Not sure it was the best introduction. Very interesting but not my favorite. ( )
  cathy.lemann | Mar 21, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 64 (next | show all)
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.
 

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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Michael Lewisprimary authorall editionscalculated
Boutsikaris, DennisNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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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.

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