Don't Only Think Outside the Box, Put More in the Box

Richard Thaler, who just won the Nobel Prize for economics, created behavioral economics. He combined what is known about human behavior from psychological analysis with economic theory. Before making economic policies, he urged policy makers to consider how humans are influenced by their cultures, lack complete self-control, and act on less than pure economic considerations. Policy makers around the world have been influenced by his book, Nudge, which emphasizes how humans are more likely to respond to gentle persuasion rather than compulsory measures.

     In many respects, diversification or the combination of fields is nothing new. It's done with stock portfolios and by actors who sing and dance to increase their career options. I remember reading how the structure of trees helped an architect design skyscrapers. If you look at a Jaguar automobile, you can see the jaguar animal inspired its design. There's music in elevators and serious films.  In science, the fields of biology and chemistry are merging. Technology puts LED lights in kids shoes and in women's evening gowns.

     The more information we can draw on, be it from the arts, sciences, economics, military history, or religion, the better prepared we will be to face the challenges of a very challenging future. Thaler makes you wonder what  sort of gentle persuasion, i.e. a nudge, would be better than sanctions to stop the military build-up in North Korea or a spanking from preventing a child from throwing another tantrum.

      Maybe we should be creating prompts to foster combinations. What combinations might foster learning, new products, people-sensitive policies?