I was most captivated by the paragraphs about behavioral economics, towards the end of the intro. Maybe this is because I like knowing the reasons behind peoples' actions, and I like health/medicine... But nevertheless. Writing that we humans tend to either overestimate or underestimate risks (xxiv); and bringing in the examples like obesity and flying, made me question if any of the risks I take daily are as irrational as others. Then, why do I make those decisions, or lifestyle choices? This is interesting, and I think (?) chapter 3 will go more into this topic. (Yay).
The immediate paragraph states that there is a possible explanation for this over/underestimation of daily risks, with a lot of models and charts, but it doesn't give insight into why so many people become 'stupid, incompetent and self-destructive' at the same time. I think it has something to do with material goods. The car example earlier- we want it, we'll find a way to obtain it. Take the new iPhone 6+, an $800 phone. Is the mindset that bigger is better, or whatever, really true? Even more general, shopping and spending money has been proven to lift emotional states and moods... So does it drive us into a state of economic blindness? I think the two are closely related. Just like the check we had Mr. Hoffner write to us with any item we wanted... The key word there was WANTED. Behavioral Economics.
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