Bobby Fischer

Interesting piece on Bobby Fischer the chess grandmaster who moved from God like status in the world of chess to be a friggen mental case in his later years. His descent into wild and irrational behaviour is far from a unique narrative, particularly in chess. The history of the game contains many similar trajectories. As…

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Delusions…..again

I have written before about the nature of delusions and how permanent they seem to be in those that suffer them. Every time I come across something to do with such behaviour it reinforces in me that irrationality is the default state for humans and that there is not a lot that can really be…

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Game Theory

Excellent chat with game theorist Ariel Rubinstein. Ariel Rubinstein of Tel Aviv University and New York University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of game theory and behavioral economics, two of the most influential areas of economics in recent years. Drawing on his Afterword for the 60th anniversary edition of Von Neumann…

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Japanese Wisdom

It is interesting where you come across little points of history that are applicable to trading. I was rereading a Japanese poem about three of Japan’s most famous warlords and a hototogisu. The hototogisu is a small songbird and is also known as the lesser cuckoo – a much more boring description that the Japanese…

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Taleb

A bit of a chat with Nassim Taleb – the author of Fooled by Randomness and Black Swans. I have never really been one of Talebs fans since Fooled by Randomness seemed to be a long series of self justifications as to why he couldn’t trade. The central undercurrent of the book seemed to be…

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Predicting the Improbable

Excellent paper by VoxEU.org on behaviour around what are considered improbable events. Predicting the improbable Claus Bjørn Jørgensen Sigrid Suetens Jean-Robert Tyran 22 April 2011 Japan’s trio of tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear disaster has left the world stunned. As this column points out, even the experts were shocked. But while these events were highly unlikely,…

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