Michael Lewis?

Maybe it was on an episode of the Lewis Howes or Jordan Harbinger or Tim Ferriss podcast. You know they’re pretty similar. Malcolm Gladwell stated that Michael Lewis is one of the best storytellers. I figured I would check out one of my favorite storyteller’s favorite storyteller.

I didn’t quite know what I was getting into when I started reading The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis, but an endorsement from Gladwell was enough for me to seek his works out. I do recall Gladwell saying that Lewis tells long-form stories while Gladwell, at least at the time (ca 2019), would tell comparatively shorter stories.

The Undoing Project

Maybe you’ve heard of Daniel Khaneman and Amos Tversky, maybe not. Either way, you’ve definitely been influenced by their works. Daniel Khaneman would go on to win a Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work with Amos Tversky. Unfortunately, Tversky had passed by this time and the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.

Their work in the field of economics was highly influential even though the two weren’t economists by training. The Undoing Project is a look at how two Israeli psychologists and unlikely collaborators would go on to unintentionally start the field of behavioral economics and revolutionize our understanding of human behavior.

Tversky, a native-born Israeli, was known to be the life of the party while Khaneman, born in Palestine and a survivor Nazi occupation in Paris, was more likely to be to himself. Lewis tells the story of how the two would come to be close friends and collaborators to their eventual breakup.