The Undoing Project-Michael Lewis

***/*****                                                                                                                                                          Biography

The Undoing Project-A Friendship that Changed the World

Michael Lewis

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman formed one of the most productive and seamless partnerships in the history of science. They had such opposing personalities that it’s little short of a miracle that they collaborated for more than forty years and gave world a completely new view of the decision-making apparatus of human mind. Amos was supremely self-assured, exuberantly gregarious and the centre of attention in any gathering. He loved to engage people in lively discussions where he dominated because of his boundless knowledge, sharp intellect and lucid articulation. Daniel, Danny to his friends, was an introvert, riddled with self-doubts. He perpetually imagined himself failing in any endeavour that he undertook, avoided conversation with colleagues and morbidly dreaded failures in life. Danny’s mother had migrated to Israel from Germany after the war. Amos was the original inhabitant of the Promised Land; his parents having settled in Israel much before the war. Both fought in numerous wars that marred the birth and growth of the young nation. They joined Hebrew university to study the subject of their choosing, Psychology. University had no teacher of repute in the department and both taught themselves the subject they loved. After graduation Danny joined army as a Psychiatrist. In army he came across the psychological methods of old school, as psychologists offered opinion about the suitability of candidates for various streams of jobs in army. He soon realised the folly of these methods and devised a new method of evaluation where psychologist’s subjective opinion about candidate’s personality had no role in the final decision. This was decided solely on objective criteria adduced form data collected about candidates. Danny’s methods had fair success in Army and introduced him to the errors of judgement of human mind. Danny though well versed in statistical methods had little expertise in application of mathematical tools to psychiatry. Amos was considered a master of Mathematical Psychology. Both joined their alma mater as faculty. Here began a unique affair between two academicians that led to the birth of a new branch of knowledge, Behavioural Economics. Soon this young stream changed the face of psychology and economics beyond recognition.

Michael Lewis in this book narrates the salient moments in the lives of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. He discusses their science too, in fair details. He brings out clearly the differing personalities of these two geniuses, notwithstanding the stunning unison of their thinking as they set about collaborating on their theories of Judgement and Decision-Making. They devised some beguilingly simple experiments to uncover the systematic biases that human mind suffers while arriving at judgement and decision in uncertain situations. Their mind-jarring (pun intended) discoveries shook the roots of classical psychology. In classical psychology humans are considered infallibly rational in every aspect of decision-making. It is accepted that human mind does err occasionally while judging a particular situation. But these errors, it is thought are rare and can be avoided by right training. Danny and Amos on the contrary, showed that in tricky, uncertain situations where the outcome was dependant on probability, human mind’s decision-making apparatus suffers a grave inherent error that is difficult to obliterate. These predictable errors of judgement are products of evolution of human brain, representing in these goof ups, the inner workings of our minds. Kahneman wrote a book, a couple of years back explaining the concepts he and Amos worked on for more than a decade. This book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ is a supreme specimen of science writing for layman. In simple, lucid explanations Kahneman lays bare the wonders of human mind for the marvel of non-professionals. Michael Lewis’ discussion of Kahneman & Tversky’s science is stilted. I would not have understood these passages easily hadn’t I read Kahneman’s book before. In their later life Amos and Danny migrated to different universities in US. Danny later moved to Canada. Their professional collaboration broke and a wide rift rented their friendship. Michael Lewis covers this phase of their lives with sensitivity. Danny at this time was working on a strange but fascinating aspect of human mind; its capacity to conjure up alternatives to an event that occurred in the past, the counterfactuals and the rules that governed this thought process. He called this work ‘The Undoing Project’. It was the time of the undoing of their friendship too. Amos suddenly took seriously ill with a metastatic cancer. This brought them together again. Amos lived only shortly after this diagnosis. Danny went on to win Noble prize in economics for the work he had done with Amos and with whom he would have shared the honour had Amos been alive. Book ends here.

Science of Kahneman and Tversky is bewitching. Through their ingenious experiments and deft reasoning, they provided us a view of the human mind at work. This knowledge forces us to re-evaluate our understanding of many aspects of human behaviour that has a direct bearing on our daily lives. Story of discovery of such germane truths about our life is bound to interest all who have ever bothered about this strange organ, our brain. A word on Michael Lewis’s prose; he is a journalist and writes like one, plain and precise prose. A lofty subject such as this might have benefited from a more poetic and inspiring prose.

April 2017