Quotes from Richard H. Thaler

A choice architect has the responsibility for organizing the context in which people make decisions.

First, never underestimate the power of inertia. Second, that power can be harnessed.

The combination of loss aversion with mindless choosing implies that if an option is designated as the "default," it will attract a large market share. Default options thus act as powerful nudges.

you want to nudge people into socially desirable behavior, do not, by any means, let them know that their current actions are better than the social norm.

The purely economic man is indeed close to being a social moron. Economic theory has been much preoccupied with this rational fool.

people have a strong tendency to go along with the status quo or default option.

Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. There the authorities have etched the image of a black housefly into each urinal. It seems that men usually do not pay much attention to where they aim, which can create a bit of a mess, but if they see a target, attention and therefore accuracy are much increased.

The first misconception is that it is possible to avoid influencing people's choices.

A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.

What makes the bias particularly pernicious is that we all recognize this bias in others but not in ourselves.

Libertarian paternalism is a relatively weak, soft, and nonintrusive type of paternalism because choices are not blocked, fenced off, or significantly burdened.

The moral is that people are paying less attention to you than you believe.

Worldly wisdom teaches that is it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.

The ideal organizational environment encourages everyone to observe, collect data, and speak up.

My only advice for reading the book is stop reading when it is no longer fun.

An especially good way to gain weight is to have dinner with other people. On average, those who eat with one other person eat about 35 percent more than they do when they are alone; members of a group of four eat about 75 percent more; those in groups of seven or more eat 96 percent more.

People are unrealistically optimistic even when the stakes are high. About 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, and this is a statistic most people have heard. But around the time of the ceremony, almost all couples believe that there is approximately a zero percent chance that their marriage will end in divorce—even those who have already been divorced!10 (Second marriage, Samuel Johnson once quipped, "is the triumph of hope over experience.")

Just as no building lacks an architecture, so no choice lacks a context.

The more choices you give people, the more help with decision making you need to provide.

Of course, coaches are Humans. They tend to do things the way they have always been done, because those decisions will not be second-guessed by the boss. As Keynes noted, following the conventional wisdom keeps you from getting fired.

So to put it simply, forcing people to choose is not always wise, and remaining neutral is not always possible.

Overconfidence is a powerful force.

MBA students are not the only ones overconfident about their abilities. The "above average" effect is pervasive. Ninety percent of all drivers think they are above average behind the wheel

The core premise of economic theory is that people choose by optimizing.