An engine, not a camera
by Donald A. MacKenzie, Donald MacKenzie · first published 2006
7mentions
7recommended by
7HN commenters
2012–2026first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Sociological study of how financial models like Black-Scholes shape markets rather than just describing them; detailed history with interviews, suited to readers interested in finance theory and its real-world effects.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
I hate this book don’t read it Ching Chong
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…excerpts from interviews with Myron Scholes and Ian Stewart woven into an oversimplified but not completely awful overview of Black-Scholes and its impact. If the question interests you, I recommend An Engine, Not a Camera by Donald MacKenzie. It goes into great detail about the history of Black-Scholes, its application in options trading, and how it (or, rather, financial modeling in general) tied into the 1987 crash and…
on “Black-Scholes: The maths formula linked to the financial crash” ↗1. I would fiercely recommend reading “An Engine, Not A Camera” (Donald MacKenzie). Formally, it reads as a sociological study of the practice of finance - how financial markets shape society instead of simply capturing its needs and desires at large. More importantly,…
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?” ↗…reshaped the ways financial practitioners behave to such an extent that financial markets now conform much more closely to what the models describe than was formerly the case. Donald MacKenzie’s book An Engine, Not a Camera is an excellent study of this phenomenon: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262633673/an-engine-not-a-camer...
on “The Microeconomics of Artificial Intelligence (2025)” ↗"An engine, not a camera" is a great book about this effect in financial markets. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engine-not-camera
on “Futarchy: Robin Hanson on prediction markets” ↗Another thumbs up for "An Engine, Not A Camera." A great book on the philosophy of financial modeling and how models influence the markets (the "engine"), rather than providing static snapshots of information (the "camera").
on “Black-Scholes: The maths formula linked to the financial crash” ↗There’s an excellent book called “An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets” that lives up to its title.
on “Negative Rates Are Rewriting the Rules of Modern Finance” ↗"En Engine, Not a Camera", a great book and posits that this effect drives a large portion of modern (post-1970s) financial markets. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/134474.An_Engine_Not_a_C...
on “How to Talk When a Machine Is Listening: Corporate Disclosure in the Age of AI” ↗