Professor Daniel Kahneman, author of “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” was one of the greatest economists to have lived. He escaped the holocaust in France and lived an extraordinary life in the United States.
He had many achievements (The Nobel Prize included) and made tremendous contributions to our understanding of human behavior. In my view, the biggest of which was likely debunking the idea that humans are rational. He did this by running many a clever experiment that demonstrated our many biases. In that sense, he was the true father of behavioral economics.
Prof Kahneman passed away last year.
Over the past weeks, it was revealed that he chose to end his life via assisted suicide in Switzerland. It was fascinating to read the excerpts of his last email to his close friends.
“I have believed since I was a teenager that the miseries and indignities of the last years of life are superfluous, and I am acting on that belief. Most people hate changing their minds,” he said, “but I like to change my mind. It means I’ve learned something…”
“I am not embarrassed by my choice, but I am also not interested in making it a public statement. The family will avoid details about the cause of death to the extent possible, because no one wants it to be the focus of the obits. Please avoid talking about it for a few days.”
“I discovered after making the decision that I am not afraid of not existing, and that I think of death as going to sleep and not waking up. The last period has truly not been hard, except for witnessing the pain I caused others. So if you were inclined to be sorry for me, don’t be,” the report said.
“Thank you for helping make my life a good one.”
I also loved this quote from Prof Philip Tetlock – “Right to the end, he was a lot smarter than most of us. But I am no mind reader. My best guess is he felt he was falling apart, cognitively and physically. And he really wanted to enjoy life and expected life to become decreasingly enjoyable. I suspect he worked out a hedonic calculus of when the burdens of life would begin to outweigh the benefits—and he probably foresaw a very steep decline in his early 90s.. I have never seen a better-planned death than the one Danny designed.”
It was fascinating to read this and pay homage to a person whose work has shaped so many of our lives. He walked through untrodden paths – from the beginning of his life to the end.
RIP Prof Kahneman.
