Comments on: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

By: Reader in Matawan

Reader in Matawan — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:04:33 +0000

I have to open with a BIG disclaimer: I have read only the beginning of the introduction available online. That said, I see that the authors have begun by not playing fairly with the reader. In the very first example, the two tables that are “equal” are not. Look at the right-hand table; the two side edges diverge. This is a perspective cue. If the perspective is true, then the right-hand table is far more foreshortened than the left-hand table. That the two are “equal” in area in the plane of the paper is the trick; if these were actual three-dimensional objects, they would not be equal at all.

I mistrust authors who play tricks to make a point, and who don’t later make those tricks right. Your mileage may vary.
Rating: 2 / 5

By: allie e.h.

allie e.h. — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:11:30 +0000

I finally figured out how a book written by liberal elites can become a bestseller: make it mandatory reading on state-controlled college campuses!

This book is required reading for a particular Lit course at our local Cal State university. Along with "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich, these are two examples of books that aim at indoctrinating young 'minds of mush' towards liberalism. Instead of educating the leaders of tomorrow, colleges across the US are set on brainwashing students through required reading of propaganda such as this. It was also the case 20 years ago when I was in college; it's much worse now.

This type of 'nudging' should stay out of the halls of higher education. Rating: 1 / 5

By: Rick Davis

Rick Davis — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:08:23 +0000

NO! Seriously! You’ve GOT to be kidding.

You get more value for your reading money buying MAD Magazine. Seriously.
Rating: 1 / 5

By: pancake_repairman

pancake_repairman — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:09:35 +0000

so yeah i did what they said on pg 17-18 and measured the dimensions of the tabletop diagrams. the two tabletops on pg 17 measure 5.25mm by 2.5mm and 5.5mm by 2.2mm respectively. A smaller difference that the naked eye suggests, but a difference nonetheless. Then on pg 18 we’re presented with a different diagram of two identical tabletops, 2.4mm by 5.4mm (or thereabouts, the sides aren’t all even in any of the diagrams) and told these tabletops have the same dimensions as those on pg 17, thus proving they were identical all along. wtf?
Rating: 1 / 5

By: Metaed

Metaed — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:11:49 +0000

A book as progressively forward thinking as this appears to be, ought to be priced in line with the Kindle standard pricing “theory”. Perhaps the $15.44 marker is merely one giant “paternalistic libertarian” choice-architecture experiment? I wonder. . . .
Rating: 1 / 5