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jasonfurman's review against another edition
5.0
Buy this book, then read the beginning of Chapter 4 which provides a hilarious send-up of how ineffective the government's food pyramid was (it is funnier when you can actually see the figure): "Now ask yourself what you should be eating if you care about nutrition. Maybe the shoeless person climbing (away from the food? toward the top?) holds a clue. But wait. What is so good about the top? What is that white apex supposed to represent? Is it heaven? Is it thinness? At the bottom, why are so many foods crowded into each other? Are you supposed to eat all of those things? At once? What’s that large stripe between “fruits” and “meat and beans”? And what is that brown thing at the lower right? Is it a shoe? Did it belong to that climbing person? Are you supposed to eat it?"
Then go back to the beginning of the book from beginning to end. And then start thinking about how you can apply the many lessons that Cass Sunstein imparts with brilliance, wit, insight, compassion, and endless energy and initiative--tying together a large amount of material into a coherent, consistent intellectual framework that is focused but also flexible.
Then go back to the beginning of the book from beginning to end. And then start thinking about how you can apply the many lessons that Cass Sunstein imparts with brilliance, wit, insight, compassion, and endless energy and initiative--tying together a large amount of material into a coherent, consistent intellectual framework that is focused but also flexible.
dennisdiehl's review against another edition
3.0
Built for readers looking for a primer on behavioral economics and its application in the real world (in this case: governance). Although 'Simpler' rarely breaks new ground, it remains an entertaining, easily digestible and highly readable addition to the canon.
wilte's review
3.0
Some good parts, but also uninteresting asides (e.g. Political opposition and voting against his appointment at OIRA). Best part was on when to choose which choice architecture: general default, personalized default or active choice. Sunstein also has a paper on that topic: "Impersonal Default Rules vs. Active Choices vs. Personalized Default Rules: A Triptych" http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2171343
thekalebrussell's review
3.0
This was surprisingly enjoyable. Sure, I never would've touched this had it not been required for my Poli Sci class, but if we had to read anything, I'd choose this in a heartbeat. I appreciated how Sunstein eloquently broke things down, making the concepts easy to understand while treating the reader like a competent human being. This book is exactly what it set out be: simple.
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