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The Tim Ferriss Show #830 · October 10, 2025 · 1h 38m
Nick Kokonas and Richard Thaler, Nobel Prize Laureate — Realistic Economics, Avoiding The Winner's Curse, Using Temptation Bundling, and Going Against the Establishment
Richard Thaler — Nobel Prize in Economics (2017) for behavioral economics — alongside Nick Kokonas (Alinea Group, Tock). Thaler co-authored Nudge and built the field of choice architecture. Covers temptation bundling, the winner's curse, and the personal cost of challenging academic orthodoxy for decades.
Canon
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Thaler is the source. Choice architecture and nudge theory from the Nobel laureate himself.
Curious
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Pair something you should do with something you want to do. Milkman (Wharton): audiobooks only at the gym → 51% more visits.
Editorial
References
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Nudge — Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein (2008) — The foundational choice architecture text
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Misbehaving — Richard Thaler (2015) — Thaler's memoir of building behavioral economics against establishment resistance
Misc
✧Thaler won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics for behavioral economics
✧The winner's curse — in competitive bidding, the winner often overpays. One of Thaler's early behavioral economics findings.
✧Kokonas co-founded The Alinea Group (sold 2024) and the reservation platform Tock
✧Kokonas applies Thaler's behavioral economics ideas to the restaurant industry
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