Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational; the really smart ones acknowledge and address their irrationalities.
When you get a checking account, you should have a savings account, and the number for the savings account should be one off of your checking account.
We are all far less rational in our decision-making than standard economic theory assumes. Our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless: they are systematic and predictable. We all make the same types of mistakes over and over, because of the basic wiring of our brains.
Giving up on our long-term goals for immediate gratification, my friends, is procrastination.
I don’t think we should go around life and being miserable all the time and feel the pain of paying. It’s a question of what categories we want to spend more on and what categories we want feel that we are spending too much on and we want to cut down.
Your immediate environment is comprised of coffee shops, supermarkets, websites, apps and all kinds of things – none of which have an interest in your long-term or short-term financial well-being.
The idea that you will make the right decision every time is very unlikely.
Honesty is a complex and tricky thing, and we don’t want to be honest all the time.
Brands communicate in two directions: they help us tell other people something about ourselves, but they also help us form ideas about who we are.
Linking financial element to energy consumption I think has a huge role if you think about a display instrument that could teach us about what we are using, how much it costs us, how much it is saving, and therefore change our decisions.
But because human being tend to focus on short-term benefits and our own immediate needs, such tragedies of the commons occur frequently .
We should teach the students, as well as executives, how to conduct experiments, how to examine data, and how to use these tools to make better decisions.
The most difficult thing is to recognize that sometimes we too are blinded by our own incentives. Because we don’t see how our conflicts of interest work on us.
When we think about labor, we usually think about motivation and payment as the same thing, but the reality is that we should probably add all kinds of things to it – meaning, creation, challenges, ownership, identity, pride.
The experiments show quite clearly that, as you resist more and more temptation, you’re actually more and more likely to fail.
The major thing that holds you back when you’re trying to change a bad habit like eating, smoking, or drinking too much is your belief you are out of control.
People are willing to work free, and they are willing to work for a reasonable wage; but offer them just a small payment and they will walk away.
Take a brilliant, creative social scientist, without any respect for conventional wisdom and you get Ellen Langer. She is a fantastic storyteller, and Counterclockwise is a fascinating story about the unexpected ways in which our minds and bodies are connected.
The people that lend you money basically give you an answer based on the risk that they are willing to take. But just because a bank is willing to take a particular risk doesn’t mean that that is the right amount for me to spend.
People are irrational – and predictably so.