Nudge
Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein · first published 2008
31% recommend67% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
An accessible introduction to choice architecture, explaining how default options and framing shape decisions. It is easy reading for anyone wanting to understand behavioral policy ideas.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Thaler and Sunstein develop libertarian paternalism as a middle path between command-and-control and strict-neutrality choice architectures. Libertarian paternalism protects humans against their damaging psychological traits (inertia, bounded rationality, undue influence) by exploiting those habits to nudge people into making better choices.
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I wasn't thrilled with say Cass Sunstein's ideas when he was appointed by Obama. Would you expand on this? I was quite impressed with what I read in Nudge. Did any of this practical thinking carry over to OIRA? Or was that perhaps part of the problem?
on “Urge President Trump to give scientists a seat at the table” ↗Okay, I'll make sure Ubuntu's next release puts my fork of emacs in /usr/bin instead of Gnu's. If you're still not understanding this, you might read Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein.
on “Why Emacs: Redux” ↗…don't really exist. The reality, of course, is that hardly anyone knows who any of these people are. Have you read much of Sunstein's stuff? What's the thing you found most problematic? Surely it isn't Nudge (a great book! but not particularly indicative of Sunstein's legal philosophy.)
on “Why aren’t there any technologists on the NSA review panel?” ↗…days 1-3 so that on Day 4, government advice is heeded? Get private companies on board, ramp up voluntary advice for some time, before letting the big news fall. If you'd like to learn more, check out Nudge by Cass Sunstein [1]. And another book by the same man, specifically covering the ethics of governments using the technique. [2] [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A5DCALY [2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JGME90E
on “Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive” ↗…accordingly. Try to understand how things work vs. Do a I say or I'll beat you up. I guess that is one of the differences between tinkers and lawyers. One book that explain tis concept better than me would be Nudge by Sunstein and Thaler.
on “Protecting My Copyright” ↗Nudge is pretty easy reading from Thaler and Sunstein. Personally tough, I preferred his Misbehaving which goes into his history with the field. Way back when, I had a couple courses with Thaler when he was…
on “Dan Ariely and Irrational Comparison” ↗Entrepreneurship Negotiation by Dinnar and Susskind covers some of the most fundamental topics anyone wanting to become an entrepreneur must know. I also find Richard Thaler work (Nudge, Misbehaving) very helpful particularly if you are in the B2C domain. The Black Swan by Taleb is another book I find myself going back to often; it's been of great help for decision making under lots…
on “Ask HN: What books helped you in your entrepreneurship journey?” ↗So you think the like counts don't have negative effects on people's beliefs and behaviours? Please read Nudge by Richard Thaler to understand how easily misguided the herd is when following the wrong signals.
on “Can Facebook Be Cut Down to Size?” ↗There’s a good book called Nudge by Richard Thaler (and someone else I can’t remember) where he goes into great detail on the default decision. Tl;dr; people usually accept the default so your prompts yield very different results.
on “VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers” ↗…love of banning things is lazy policy-making. It's better to disincentivize and let markets take care of it. That way you preserve freedom while also encouraging desirable outcomes. Further reading: "Nudge" by Richard Thaler.
on “A Swiss town banned billboards. Zurich, Bern may soon follow” ↗(Edit: BTW, if you haven't, read Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein. It's a somewhat long-winded exploration on choice architectures, but you're neck deep in that space now. I'll give you my copy if you're in SF.) Thanks for the openness. I…
on “Claude Code: Anatomy of a Misfeature” ↗Another tool for designing out choices is called "Nudge" [1] By a nudge we mean anything that influences our choices. A school cafeteria might try to nudge kids toward good diets by putting the healthiest foods at front. We think that it's time for institutions,…
on “The Top Of My Todo List” ↗Has anyone read the book they talk about in the article (http://www.amazon.com/Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happi... )? It has decent reviews and seems like it might be interesting, but I never seem to have as much reading time as I'd like, and I was hoping someone here could give…
on “Images of flies on a urinal = 80% less 'spillage' on the airport bathroom floor” ↗…worked out, that this is a great idea and really would use market forces to naturally shorten TOSs. It has a very Libertarian Paternalism idea about it in that it's not limiting freedom but gives them a Nudge[1] in the more universally beneficial direction. As a user who just wants to click accept and GTFO, this would initially be a burdon as all existing TOSs are aligned with this requirement. I don't want…
on “Terms of Service; Didn't Read” ↗…people of various IQ levels.) And for general social improvement, it is also possible to shape public policies so that they take into account common forms of human irrationality, http://www.amazon.com/Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happi... so that daily life is more sound even if the people living it are neither more intelligent nor more rational.
on “How to Raise Our I.Q.” ↗