What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies

We’re inevitably influenced by what we know and the beaten-down paths walked by the pioneers before us. Escaping our own assumptions is tricky business—particularly when they’re invisible to us.

Some economists are already working on that. They are using this brain-imaging data to support a new political philosophy known as asymmetric paternalism. That's a fancy name for a simple idea: creating policies and incentives that help people triumph over their irrational impulses and make better, more prudent decisions. Shlomo Benartzi and Richar

The emotion default: we tend to respond to feelings rather than reasons and facts. 2. The ego default: we tend to react to anything that threatens our sense of self-worth or our position in a group hierarchy. 3. The social default: we tend to conform to the norms of our larger social group. 4. The inertia default: we’re habit forming and comfort se

For each of us to contribute to the pool of collective wisdom, it is critical that the question we instead answer is: ‘What is in our collective interest? What is best for the nation as a whole?’ When we aggregate our multiple perspectives in answer to this question, we stand a good chance of getting to a better answer than any of us would alone. W