Meta
I did Economics A Level, back in the mists of time.Since then I’ve done a Psychology degree and an MBA.
Humans are not rational actors seeking to maximise their economic utility.
We’re meat bags, and (too) often meat puppets. Let’s treat each other – and our Selves – on the basis of that insight. I.e. with understanding, compassion, and a pinch of salt!
The List
The rationale
- Predictably Irrational – i.e. humans are irrational, but in predictable ways
- The Lean Startup – a business passion of mine, and a means to experiment your way to success. Has turned business failure into something valuable – if in the context of continual learning
- Business Model Generation – essential complement to The Lean Startup. When I first read it, half way through I thought: “this is McKinsey quality material”. Not sure if McKinsey knows a great deal about this domain though… #discuss
- On the basis of reading Moneyball(and watching the film), I am a huge Michael Lewis fan. His lighthearted style turns non-fiction subjects into page-turners. A pleasure and an indulgence to read his work
To read:
- Nudge - the book that started the Behavioural Economics movement, and brought groundedness to stale academic debate
- Liar’s Poker – Wall Street excess and nuttiness
- Flash Boys – the operations (or not) of high-frequency financial trading
- The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World – shining a fond light into the professional collaboration of Amos Tversky & Danny Kahneman. This will be a reward for doing something special ;D
- The Big Short – Michael’s treatment of one of the pivotal moments of this century so far
- The English Constitution – Walter Bagehot’s take on the UK’s unwritten constitution
- Lombard Street - according to Wikipedia: "Bagehot was one of the first writers to describe and explain the world of international and corporate finance, banking, and money in understandable language"
- The Madness of Crowds – definitely not rational economics actions, surely undercutting efficient market theory…?
- The Smartest Guys in the Room: epic folly, cynical pyramid schemes, and still on my shelf. The Enron story and the subsequent collapse. Whistleblowers everywhere -
The Task
Let’s learn how to empower ourselves to make the best decisions possible, and de-mystify the jargon and de-fang the prognosticators – based on our own experiments!Students everywhere: take control of your own learning in this domain, bring it to life with stuff more readily intelligible, and become passionate about such as important topic.
