Nudge: Final Review
January 2, 2009
I have finally completed Nudge by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, and my opinion of the book overall is very favorable. In the last portion of the book I reset my expectations, and it allowed me to better appreciate the book for what the authors were trying to accomplish.
Initially while reading their recommendations for ways to address decision making problems, I was very much underwhelmed. Especially after being so impressed with their introductory investigation into the human conditions that leads towards erroneous decisions. But then I read a sentence where they reminded the reader that the book was called “Nudge” not “Shove”, and it sunk in for me that I was reading the book expecting the “shove” recommendations, which were quite rightly nowhere to be found. I’m sure if the authors wanted to they could have presented examples of more aggressive approaches towards solving the problems outlined in the book, but that would have defeated the spirit for which it was written. Besides, whose to say that some of these small changes in “choice architecture” couldn’t lead towards larger than expected results.
To see the full series of my posts on Nudge follow the links below:
January 2, 2009 at 6:59 pm
[...] I picked up with a Christmas gift card, and have been looking forward to reading while finishing up Nudge. Here is a taste of what to expect: “The Rest is Noise chronicles not only the artists [...]
January 6, 2009 at 5:04 am
[...] A commitment strategy to avoid gambling away your winnings from the non-fiction dad’s five part review of Nudge. The last day of the cruise I couldn’t get the losses out of my head and was sure that [...]
January 6, 2009 at 5:04 am
[...] A commitment strategy to avoid gambling away your winnings from the non-fiction dad’s five part review of Nudge. The last day of the cruise I couldn’t get the losses out of my head and was sure that [...]
January 7, 2009 at 2:00 am
[...] 7, 2009 Leading to the biggest traffic day so far here at Nofiction Dad, my review series on Nudge was highlighted on the authors blog. I’m sure glad that I ended up liking that [...]