Richard Thaler won the Noble Prize in Economics.

[lucas80]

I'm surprised this hasn't been discussed here.
Thaler has made his mark by studying the behavioral economics. Much of his work has focused on irrational usage of money.
Before you think this is just some stuffy professor, I know him as a frequent guest on The Score, a sports station in Chicago. He spoken at length about teams and fans making poor decisions with their money. A few years ago the Washington Redskins asked him to visit with them before the draft. Thaler broke down the value of draft positions, and thought he had effectively explained the most impact and value came from the middle round picks. Thaler commented that the owner of the Redskins, Daniel Snyder, sat and took a lot of notes while he spoke. A few weeks later the Redskins traded away multiple picks to move up and take Robert Griffin III. How did that work out for Snyder?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...aler-nobel-prize-winner-behavioural-economics

 

[pablow]

I'm surprised this hasn't been discussed here.
Thaler has made his mark by studying the behavioral economics. Much of his work has focused on irrational usage of money.
Before you think this is just some stuffy professor, I know him as a frequent guest on The Score, a sports station in Chicago. He spoken at length about teams and fans making poor decisions with their money. A few years ago the Washington Redskins asked him to visit with them before the draft. Thaler broke down the value of draft positions, and thought he had effectively explained the most impact and value came from the middle round picks. Thaler commented that the owner of the Redskins, Daniel Snyder, sat and took a lot of notes while he spoke. A few weeks later the Redskins traded away multiple picks to move up and take Robert Griffin III. How did that work out for Snyder?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...aler-nobel-prize-winner-behavioural-economics

Good stuff. I've always thought lottery picks were generally the kiss of death - owners are paying for draft position, not talent.

 

[ping72]

Dick is a good dude.

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

If Steven Levitt is still at U of Chicago, that is a powerhouse faculty in economics. Levitt is one of my favorite economic theorists and authors.

 

[dgordo]

I took Thaler's class in business school. Great guy and actually made behavioral economics interesting.

 

[mstp1992]

Very interesting guy. The field of neuroeconomics is growing significantly. The confluence of economics, psychology, and neuroscience in the study of economic decision-making is extremely fascinating. For decades it was thought irrational economic decision-making in patients with certain types of brain injury was due to purely emotional or psychological or cognitive deficiencies. Now, it's becoming clearer that damage to certain parts of the brain don't necessarily impact basic faculties such as intellect, perception, memory, motor/sensory, etc. or even cause emotional distress (i.e., lack of depressive or anxiety symptomatology). Yet, these folks can become complete disasters when it comes to complex decision-making. There's a mind-body loop that impacts that 'gut response' that tells you something is a bad idea. Kind of a myopia for the future -- immediate reward without regard for future loss.

Fascinating indeed.

 

[93hawkeye]

Good stuff. I've always thought lottery picks were generally the kiss of death - owners are paying for draft position, not talent.

It depends on what your goals are as owner/GM. I you want to only win, yeah, go for value. If you wanna make a big splash and earn those eyeballs, big advertising sponsorships, etc then sometimes the overpriced first rounder is "worth it"

 

[DogBoyRy]

Very interesting guy. The field of neuroeconomics is growing significantly. The confluence of economics, psychology, and neuroscience in the study of economic decision-making is extremely fascinating. For decades it was thought irrational economic decision-making in patients with certain types of brain injury was due to purely emotional or psychological or cognitive deficiencies. Now, it's becoming clearer that damage to certain parts of the brain don't necessarily impact basic faculties such as intellect, perception, memory, motor/sensory, etc. or even cause emotional distress (i.e., lack of depressive or anxiety symptomatology). Yet, these folks can become complete disasters when it comes to complex decision-making. There's a mind-body loop that impacts that 'gut response' that tells you something is a bad idea. Kind of a myopia for the future -- immediate reward without regard for future loss.

Fascinating indeed.

Agreed.
Got turned onnto him by the book thinking fast and slow that had lots of his research.
I made the engineers who use to work for me read that book.