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The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
Written by Michael Lewis
Narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris
Book Actions
Start ListeningRatings:
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars4.5/5 (257 ratings)
Length: 10 hours
- Publisher:
- Simon & Schuster Audio
- Released:
- Dec 6, 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781508229124
- Format:
- Audiobook
Editor's Note
Unites Lewis’s works…
The book unfolds much like a love story without the romance — there is infatuation, distancing, and heartbreak. Ultimately, “The Undoing Project” illuminates one of the 20th century’s greatest collaborations, and the power of two minds becoming one.
Description
Bestselling author Michael Lewis examines how a Nobel Prize-winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality.
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original 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 about 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 the fascinating collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield―both had important careers in the Israeli military―and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind's view of its own mind.
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original 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 about 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 the fascinating collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield―both had important careers in the Israeli military―and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind's view of its own mind.
Book Actions
Start ListeningBook Information
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
Written by Michael Lewis
Narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris
Ratings:
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars4.5/5 (257 ratings)
Length: 10 hours
Editor's Note
Unites Lewis’s works…
The book unfolds much like a love story without the romance — there is infatuation, distancing, and heartbreak. Ultimately, “The Undoing Project” illuminates one of the 20th century’s greatest collaborations, and the power of two minds becoming one.
Description
Bestselling author Michael Lewis examines how a Nobel Prize-winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality.
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original 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 about 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 the fascinating collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield―both had important careers in the Israeli military―and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind's view of its own mind.
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original 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 about 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 the fascinating collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield―both had important careers in the Israeli military―and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind's view of its own mind.
- Publisher:
- Simon & Schuster Audio
- Released:
- Dec 6, 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781508229124
- Format:
- Audiobook
About the author
Michael Lewis is the author of Heidegger and the Place of Ethics (Bloomsbury), Heidegger beyond Deconstruction: On Nature (Bloomsbury), Derrida and Lacan: Another Writing (Edinburgh University Press), and (with Tanja Staehler), Phenomenology: An Introduction (Bloomsbury), along with articles on Agamben, Bataille, Derrida, Esposito, Lacan, Stiegler, and Žižek among others. Educated in Philosophy at the Universities of Warwick and Essex, he has taught philosophy, film, psychoanalysis, and philosophical anthropology at the University of Sussex (2007–9, 2011), University of Warwick (2010), and the University of the West of England (2011–15). He currently teaches philosophy at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
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4.5Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
257 ratings / 42 reviews
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Reader reviews
asxz-2
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
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Wow. At a time where it seems deeply uncool to venerate anything that comes from Israel, Lewis has written an amazing book about two Israeli academics that kinda changed the world.
This is a love story about two men who together offered the world insights and understanding that neither might have arrived at alone.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have influenced a generation of psychologists and economists. This is a terrific story, well told.
This is a love story about two men who together offered the world insights and understanding that neither might have arrived at alone.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have influenced a generation of psychologists and economists. This is a terrific story, well told.
asxz-2
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
Wow. At a time where it seems deeply uncool to venerate anything that comes from Israel, Lewis has written an amazing book about two Israeli academics that kinda changed the world.
This is a love story about two men who together offered the world insights and understanding that neither might have arrived at alone.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have influenced a generation of psychologists and economists. This is a terrific story, well told.
This is a love story about two men who together offered the world insights and understanding that neither might have arrived at alone.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have influenced a generation of psychologists and economists. This is a terrific story, well told.
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deldevries
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
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Well told! Details behind the published research (that I've read a whole bunch of!). Story telling as Michael Lewis is very capable of making interesting.
deldevries
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
Well told! Details behind the published research (that I've read a whole bunch of!). Story telling as Michael Lewis is very capable of making interesting.
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nbmars
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
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Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, who trained as psychologists, have become famous for their work describing how the human mind works, particularly in how it sometimes deceives itself. I would call them “intellectuals” though rather than "psychologists" because their ideas have permeated diverse fields such as economics, decision theory, law, medicine, political policy, and even sports. Kahneman received a Nobel Prize in economics; Tversky probably would have shared the award, had he survived. Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously. The two friends and colleagues explored many patterns in thought by which human beings deceive themselves, from over-generalizing good assessments about a person based on one particular positive aspect, to deducing a cause and effect relationship between things that may just be randomly coincident in time or place.Perhaps their biggest contribution was to debunk the reigning economic theory that rational decision-making guides human decision making. Their work led to the now ascendant field of behavioral economics, represented most prominently by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. [See, for example, the book Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler.]Their work was also summarized and popularized in Kahneman’s best seller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, which I also recently reviewed. Michael Lewis has written a book that combines the biographies of the two men; the story of the long-lived and sometimes tempestuous relationship between them (Lewis calls it "a love story"); and an explanation of their work and how it impacted other fields. Lewis is an excellent writer who is able to digest and explicate Tversky’s and Kahneman’s sometimes difficult and arcane ideas. Moreover, he is able to make the reader care about the two protagonists as people as well as the source of important concepts. His concluding chapter, especially the last paragraph, is particularly moving. (JAB)
nbmars
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, who trained as psychologists, have become famous for their work describing how the human mind works, particularly in how it sometimes deceives itself. I would call them “intellectuals” though rather than "psychologists" because their ideas have permeated diverse fields such as economics, decision theory, law, medicine, political policy, and even sports. Kahneman received a Nobel Prize in economics; Tversky probably would have shared the award, had he survived. Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously. The two friends and colleagues explored many patterns in thought by which human beings deceive themselves, from over-generalizing good assessments about a person based on one particular positive aspect, to deducing a cause and effect relationship between things that may just be randomly coincident in time or place.Perhaps their biggest contribution was to debunk the reigning economic theory that rational decision-making guides human decision making. Their work led to the now ascendant field of behavioral economics, represented most prominently by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. [See, for example, the book Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler.]Their work was also summarized and popularized in Kahneman’s best seller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, which I also recently reviewed. Michael Lewis has written a book that combines the biographies of the two men; the story of the long-lived and sometimes tempestuous relationship between them (Lewis calls it "a love story"); and an explanation of their work and how it impacted other fields. Lewis is an excellent writer who is able to digest and explicate Tversky’s and Kahneman’s sometimes difficult and arcane ideas. Moreover, he is able to make the reader care about the two protagonists as people as well as the source of important concepts. His concluding chapter, especially the last paragraph, is particularly moving. (JAB)
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mbmackay
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
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A delightfully written account of Tversky and Kahneman, the two psychologists who made a major contribution to Economics. Kahneman famously won the Nobel prize for Economics without ever taking an Economic subject at university.The story of the two academics is fascinating, and needs no embellishment to be a page turner, and this author obliges. The writing is so crisp and clear that it almost disappears and the reader absorbs the story. There is enough detail to flesh out the lives, with little speculation where the record is lacking.The one irritant in this masterful writing style is the first chapter. Before introducing the main characters or their work, there is a lengthy diversion about American sports teams and the efforts of a few to improve judgements about player potential by the use of data. Of course, much of this is underpinned by the work of Tversky and Kahneman, but there is no attempt to make the link, and the whole chapter seems like an editor's misguided attempt to make the book more appealing to the lay reader. The book doesn't need it, and is diminished by it.
mbmackay
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
A delightfully written account of Tversky and Kahneman, the two psychologists who made a major contribution to Economics. Kahneman famously won the Nobel prize for Economics without ever taking an Economic subject at university.The story of the two academics is fascinating, and needs no embellishment to be a page turner, and this author obliges. The writing is so crisp and clear that it almost disappears and the reader absorbs the story. There is enough detail to flesh out the lives, with little speculation where the record is lacking.The one irritant in this masterful writing style is the first chapter. Before introducing the main characters or their work, there is a lengthy diversion about American sports teams and the efforts of a few to improve judgements about player potential by the use of data. Of course, much of this is underpinned by the work of Tversky and Kahneman, but there is no attempt to make the link, and the whole chapter seems like an editor's misguided attempt to make the book more appealing to the lay reader. The book doesn't need it, and is diminished by it.
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abycats_1
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
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Thorough analysis of a friendship between two brilliant men who, together, revolutionized attitudes toward the reliability of basing studies of decision-making purely on the concept of a "rational" person.
Personally, since statistics was one of my favorite college courses, i was slowed in reading this by my desire to thoroughly understand the concepts presented. That was what fascinated. Am not really sure how someone without that history would respond to the book -- probably just as a study of a friendship. Definitely worth my time.
Personally, since statistics was one of my favorite college courses, i was slowed in reading this by my desire to thoroughly understand the concepts presented. That was what fascinated. Am not really sure how someone without that history would respond to the book -- probably just as a study of a friendship. Definitely worth my time.
abycats_1
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
Thorough analysis of a friendship between two brilliant men who, together, revolutionized attitudes toward the reliability of basing studies of decision-making purely on the concept of a "rational" person.
Personally, since statistics was one of my favorite college courses, i was slowed in reading this by my desire to thoroughly understand the concepts presented. That was what fascinated. Am not really sure how someone without that history would respond to the book -- probably just as a study of a friendship. Definitely worth my time.
Personally, since statistics was one of my favorite college courses, i was slowed in reading this by my desire to thoroughly understand the concepts presented. That was what fascinated. Am not really sure how someone without that history would respond to the book -- probably just as a study of a friendship. Definitely worth my time.
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lynnb_64
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
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I was familiar with the work of the book's two protagonists (Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky) before reading this book, so my reading focused on the relationship between the two men. This was very well portrayed by the author. Mr. Lewis was able to get deeply into that relationship, showing us just how close the two were, and the sadness of their drifting apart. He also described their work in enough detail to show its important contribution to the worlds of economics and psychology. Very well done.
lynnb_64
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
I was familiar with the work of the book's two protagonists (Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky) before reading this book, so my reading focused on the relationship between the two men. This was very well portrayed by the author. Mr. Lewis was able to get deeply into that relationship, showing us just how close the two were, and the sadness of their drifting apart. He also described their work in enough detail to show its important contribution to the worlds of economics and psychology. Very well done.
Was this review helpful for you?