Maxims for Thinking Analytically

The Wisdom of Legendary Harvard Professor Richard Zeckhauser

De: Dan Levy, Larry Summers - foreword

Narrado por: Barry Abrams

This book will help you think more analytically. Doing so will enable you to better understand the world around you, to make smarter decisions, and to ultimately live a more fulfilling life.

It draws on the maxims of Richard Zeckhauser, a legendary Harvard professor, who has helped hundreds of students and colleagues progress toward these goals. These maxims, one-sentence nuggets of wisdom that capture key principles for clear and effective thinking, are illustrated with practical examples from Richard's colleagues and students. From these examples, you will learn how one colleague saved money on her wedding by thinking probabilistically, how Richard and his wife Sally made an agonizing health decision that significantly boosted Sally's survival probabilities, and how the prime minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, used a maxim he learned from Richard 40 years ago to understand and deal with COVID-19 in his nation.

This book provides vital insights for anyone who wants to think more effectively about the world. The author, Dan Levy, teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he has been a close faculty colleague and mentee of Richard Zeckhauser for more than 15 years.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Dan Levy (P)2021 Tantor

Underrated

If you liked ‘Thinking in Bets,’ you’ll enjoy this book too. I highly recommend it if you’re looking to improve your perception of the world and the way you interact with it.

One of the few good books in the area

This book deserves far more attention than it has received. However, if you move in circles where the name Richard Zeckhauser is used with considerable reverence, it will get your attention. The book by Dan Levy is based on a course that professor Richard Zeckhauser taught at Harvard for more than 40 years.

His primary focus is maintaining perspective and intellectual discipline under uncertainty.

David Ricardo made a fortune buying British government bonds on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. The best investors have earned extraordinary returns by investing in the unknown and the unknowable (UU). This book extends their habits of mind to policy, personal decisions, careers and relationships. Taking these risks must be done on a reasoned and sensible basis.

The book's core theme is managing "ignorance," a widespread situation in the real world of investing, where even the possible states of the world are unknown. Traditional finance theory does not apply in UU situations. Strategic thinking, deducing what other investors might know, and assessing whether they might be deterred from investing, for example, due to fiduciary requirements, frequently point the way to profitability.

Most big investment payouts come when money combines complementary skills, such as developing real estate or new technologies. Those who lack these skills can look for "sidecar" investments that allow them to put their money alongside those they know to be both capable and honest. The reader is asked to consider several such investments. Central concepts in decision analysis, game theory, and behavioural decisions are deployed alongside accurate decisions to unearth successful strategies. These strategies are distilled into eighteen maxims. Learning to operate effectively in a UU world may be the most promising way to significantly bolster your prosperity, happiness and personal satisfaction with life.


it is a beautiful insight into the way of thinking of a brilliant, rational, analytical, and wise person. The best part is that the book applies not only to your work problems or school assignments but also to almost every aspect of your daily life — whenever you need to make a decision or plan for the future.

My recommendation is to read the book and re-read it. I have.

Constantly referring to Trump and COVID

Constantly referring to Trump and COVID made this a tough listen.

I couldn't get through the whole book, constantly being reminded of the lockdown policies and deaths during the pandemic.

The first few maxims are good then the book goes off on COVID statistics and loses the reader.