Quotes About Behavior

And many of the problems of society come from the argument "other people are doing it.

The reader knows my opinion on unsolicited advice and sermons on how to behave in life.

Light control works; close control leads to overreaction, sometimes causing the machinery to break into pieces. In a famous paper "On Governors," published in 1867, Maxwell modeled the behavior and showed mathematically that tightly controlling the speed of engines leads to instability.

how people can cherry-pick ethical rules to fit their actions.

It means that rational thinking has little, very little, to do with risk avoidance. Much of what rational thinking seems to do is rationalize one's actions by fitting some logic to them.

people's understanding of probability does not translate into their behavior).

people fit their beliefs to actions rather than fit their actions to their beliefs.

the negative effect for an average loss to be up to 2.5 the magnitude of a positive one); it will lead to an emotional deficit.

He would be forced to act as a satisficer instead of a maximizer

much of the opinions and assessments that we have concerning risks may be the simple result of emotions.

the behavior of the total is dictated by the preferences of a minority.

This reasoning shows that sophistication can, at some level, cause degradation, what economists call "negative utility.

Judging people by their beliefs is not scientific. There is no such thing as the "rationality" of a belief, there is rationality of action. The rationality of an action can be judged only in terms of evolutionary considerations.

our actions are not quite guided by the parts of our brain that dictate rationality. We think with our emotions and there is no way around it.

people who are otherwise rational engage in smoking or in fights that get them no immediate benefits;

There is a difference between beliefs that are decorative and different sorts of beliefs, those that map to action.

fewer pedestrians die jaywalking than using regulated crossings.

I discovered the magic of the camera in reestablishing civil/ethical behavior as follows.

I discovered that it is much more effective to act like a nice guy and be "reasonable

humans may have an instinct to procrastinate only when no life is in danger.

We inherited the taste for uncalculated risk taking. Should we encourage such behavior?

have some element of loss aversion.

Universal behavior is great on paper, disastrous in practice.

many people become long-term investors after they lose money, postponing their decision to sell as part of their denial.