Nudge – Improving decisions

I was reading this book by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein entitled "Nudge" - in the book they evaluate choices, biases and the limits of human reasoning from several perspectives. They tell stories about how they trick themselves to becoming victims of the very limitations of thought that they are describing. This is telling, because the very fact that these educated, articulate professionals can trick themselves (even though they know what is happening) demonstrates how tough it is to think clearly. We fall prey to systematic errors of judgment all the time - however, one of the ways of harnessing this issue is to help others make better decisions.

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Opinions

Some Friday wisdom. Opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has one... in the same way that you don’t go around worrying about everyone else’s arseholes... you ought to do the same with their opinions too.

Blind men and an elephant

As the story goes, a group of blind people encounter an elephant for the first time, and each person approaches the elephant from a different angle. As a result, they each feel something different such as a trunk, a tusk, a tail and so on.

Watch collectors: Don’t buy what you like!

Without the aforementioned deep-diving, the purchase of any watch is more transactional. This is why you should not simply "buy what you like". This is common advice given to new collectors, and the problem with this advice, is the very nature of what you like, is likely a temporary conclusion.

The BS asymmetry principle

Brandolini's Law - this is the simple observation that it’s far easier to produce and spread BS, misinformation and nonsense than it is to refute it.

Costs vs benefits

What is the cost of an item? The price tag is a matter of fact, but how often do people really think about the true cost of an item when weighing it against the benefits of ownership?

Is it worth having children?

René Descartes was a French 17th century philosopher, most famous for his saying "I think therefore I am". What makes him stand out for me, is that he was a fierce rationalist - relying on reason as the best guide for belief and action. This was in an age when many philosophers backed up their arguments with appeals to god, Descartes trusted in nothing more than the power of human logic. I am no philosopher, but I do see myself as a fierce rationalist too, often relying on logic to solve many of my own conundrums. It is with this logical hat on, that I would like to discuss the topic of having children, and why this may, or may not be a good idea. My overall conclusion is that while young children may bring many moments of joy and positives to young parents, the real reason for having children is the benefits to the parents when they get old.

Homo economicus in the watch collecting world

We summarise the defining traits of the Homo Economicus, and contrast these traits with the watch collector

Watches as an “asset class” – Should you buy watches as an investment or is it simply speculation?

If we can concede that 'hype' is unpredictable, and that watch prices have no underlying rationale such as defined supply/demand constraints, then we must agree that buying watches for potential financial gain is simply speculation.

Chutzpah in Watchmaking

What about watchmaking then? Can you name any watchmaker(s) who come to mind when we think about Chutzpah? I’ll pick a few...