David Brooks on "The Behavioral Revolution"

David Brooks had this op-ed piece in the New York Times:   The Behavioral Revolution. I feel like the following quote (describing Nassim Taleb) sums up so much of why I have issues with purely market based solutions:

He subscribes to what he calls the tragic vision of humankind, which “believes in the existence of inherent limitations and flaws in the way we think and act and requires an acknowledgement of this fact as a basis for any individual and collective action.” If recent events don’t underline this worldview, nothing will.

There are fundamental flaws in our rationality (which David Brooks lists):  overweighting recent events against old ones, believing that good things are the result of action on our part while bad things are more likely to be bad luck, overrecognizing patterns that don't exist.  The brain is a massive pattern-recognizing machine!  We need to rethink our ideas on what it means to be a rational actor.

Mike's pastry

Mmmm. Cannoli.

Pumpkins