Behavioral Economics
topic on 4 shows · 5 statements across 4 episodes
the Knowledge Project 
Capital Allocators 
How I Built This 
the a16z Podcast
5 statements about Behavioral Economics, every show
Griffin: Complexity theory teaches humility and margin of safety, not prediction
“Both of those things teach you not that you can create a predictive theory, but that you should be humble and that you should build in a margin of safety.”
Stein: People Will Not Make Rational Decisions Left to Their Own Devices
“Despite our best intentions, we're highly likely to make mistakes. We let our emotions get in the way. And in fact, we will not make rational decisions if left to our own devices.”
Standard economics only works for perfectly rational agents
“And then because of that standard economics continues in having recommendation that are really good for people who are perfectly rational. Whereas behavioral economics makes recommendations that are good for normal people.”
Ariely reads nonsense to students to demonstrate pluralistic ignorance
“I start the class By taking a paragraph from some post-modern literature, a text generator, something, you know, crazy that you don't understand what's going on... And I just read this for five minutes, and, you know, and it's the first class, it's first class…”
Mauboussin: Individual Cognitive Biases Often Cancel Out, Leaving Markets Efficient
“The fact that you and I are suboptimal and it's easy for us to show that we're suboptimal as individuals that doesn't necessarily translate into a market setting, right? Because our errors may cancel out. You're overconfident. You buy, I'm overconfident. I sel…”