beautiful theory. wrong species

Beautiful theory. Wrong species.

How it should work.

How economists* pretend it works

* Business executives and civil servants are more guilty than economists in this respect

Homo Economicus• Operates in a world of complete trust

• Has perfect information

• Perceives the world objectively in ways which are always mathematically expressible

• Considers every available option

• Is free of complex emotions such as fear, regret, spite, anger, resentment and mistrust

• Is a-social: has no understanding of relationships

“Thus, the conventional view that natural selection favors nervous systems which produce ever more accurate images of the world must be a very naive view of mental evolution”

(Trivers 1976/2006)

The sweet spot

Technology

Economics

Psychology

David Rock's SCARF model

• Status• Certainty• Autonomy• Relatedness• Fairness

The narcissism of small differences

Strategy hints• Optionality not optimality

• The sweet spot

• Spot the dumbest "rationalist" economic assumption of your competitors, and ignore it.

• Dare to be trivial

@rorysutherland

Thank you.