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The problem with problem solving
Today humanity faces multiple problems that are simultaneously difficult and interesting, but that’s not new; our species has always faced challenges. The only difference today is that everything looked easy when our parents were facing the tough choices. But now that the shoe is on our foot, so to speak, we’ve come face to face with complexity and it can be daunting. What we have to deal with complexity that our parents didn’t have is the work of Daniel Kahneman and his late partner Amos Tversky.
Daniel Kahnemen won a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for his work with Tversky on how we behave when facing difficult choices. What’s interesting about Kahneman is that he’s a psychologist and researcher, definitely not an economist, but today he’s known as one of the fathers of a new branch of economics, behavioral economics.
Let’s look at two of the thorniest problems we all face today through Kahneman’s prism, climate change and cybercrime. Considering either of these issues is not anyone’s idea of fun and considering both in one article is asking a lot. But they’re such serious issues that it behooves us all to spend a few moments with them. First let’s understand Kahneman’s way of problem solving.
Kahneman’s prism
In 2011 Daniel Kahneman published, Thinking, Fast and Slowwhich summarized some of the…
