Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics by Richard Thaler

As I sat in my room, having been wasting hours away on YouTube, something had caught my eye: the algorithm had suddenly recommended me a lecture on Behavioural Economics at Harvard University. Although the content itself proved to be hard to follow (mainly due to the lingo used), I was intrigued by the idea of a fusion of Economics and Psychology.

I had just finished reading The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek and I was drawn to this book, which I later found out, won Thaler his Nobel Prize in Economics. To put it bluntly, as someone who had not touched Economics in a year, wasting much of his time away in the Army, I was prepared to suffer. The fact that he had won a Nobel Prize with this book was all the proof I needed to know that the book was not going to be a leisurely read. To my surprise, this book was more of a memoir. Thaler describes many of his encounters that ultimately led him to become a pioneer in the field of Behavioural Economics, which in the past, was a field that many Economists were not fond of.

From working with a Ski Resort, to a NFL team, to working with David Cameron and the UK government, the applications of Behavioural Economics in Thaler's life was vast and intriguing. Many concepts were introduced, in the field of both social sciences. Concepts were usually outlined with examples, giving me many "eureka!" moments. That feeling alone was worth the read. However, having taken notes on the book which amounts to 17,000 words, I was left extremely exhausted. Nonetheless, I believe I know all I need to know for this field, and that gives me satisfaction.

7.5/10

Below, I have attached my 17,000 worded "summary notes" on the book. As ridiculous as that sounds, I can estimate that I have reduced the book's word count by 90.8%. The pivotal concepts and information are still intact, just mind the grammar that I have used in the notes :-)

Misbehaving_ The Making of Behavioural E

Download • 2.52MB