If you're trading individual securities, you're almost certainly making a mistake. Because most professional managers can't outperform their benchmarks, and there's little reason to think that individuals can.
Richard ThalerRead
The ability of businesses to monitor our behavior is already a fact of life, and it isn't going away. Of course we must protect our privacy rights. But if we're smart, we'll also use the data that is being collected to improve our own lives.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Businesses can track our behaviors, impacting our privacy, but we can use this data to enhance our lives.
Richard Thaler's quote addresses the pervasive nature of corporate surveillance in modern society, emphasizing the inevitability of data collection by businesses. While he cautions the need to safeguard privacy rights, Thaler also highlights a proactive approach, suggesting that individuals can leverage this data to make informed decisions that enhance their quality of life.
Themes
PrivacyDataBusinessBehaviorLifeImprovement
In practice
Example use cases
In a talk on data ethics, one might reference Thaler's quote to highlight the balance between privacy and the benefits of data use.
More from Richard Thaler
All quotes →When an economist says the evidence is "mixed," he or she means that theory says one thing and data says the opposite.
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In the 1940s, economics started getting highly mathematical. It was basically because economists weren't smart enough to write down models of real behavior that they started writing down models of highly rational behavior - and they kind of forgot about humans.
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Academia does not provide many opportunities for immediate gratification. You work for two years on a project, it takes two more years to get it published, and then you start hoping someone might read it.
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In the world of traditional economics, it shouldn't matter whether you use an opt-in or opt-out system. So long as the costs of registering as a donor or a nondonor are low, the results should be similar. But many findings of behavioral economics show that tiny disparities in such rules can make a big difference.
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My thesis topic was 'The value of a human life.' I asked people a question: 'Suppose you had some risk, a one in a thousand risk of dying - how much would you pay to eliminate it?'
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