His thesis: to u nderstand the 21st century, you need to understand that the planet's three largest forces - Moore's law (technology), the Market (globalization), and Mother Nature (climate change and biodiversity loss) - are accelerating all at once. These accelerations are transforming five key realms: the workplace, politics, geopolitics, ethics, and community. The year 2007 was the major inflection point: the release of the iPhone, together with advances in silicon chips, software, storage, sensors, and networking, created a new technology platform that is reshaping everything from how we hail a taxi to the fate of nations to our most intimate relationships.  

 

Forty years ago, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of original studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred, systematically, when forced to make judgments in uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, revolutionized Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Lewis's own work possible. Kahneman and Tversky are arguably more responsible than anybody for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms. Although Tversky died in 1996, Lewis was able to interview Kahneman extensively for the book, which adds to the richness of the narrative. The two were an unlikely pair in some ways, but their partnership was one the most extraordinary in the history of science and Lewis makes their story eminently readable. Not surprisingly, by the way, The Undoing Project has also spurred sales of  Kahneman's book, Thinking, Fast and Slow.