Russ Roberts

how-adam-smith-can-change-your-life

Best Thing: Reviewers often praise "How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life" for its insightful analysis of human behavior and morality. The book effectively connects Smith's ideas to modern life, emphasizing the importance of virtue and self-awareness in achieving true happiness rather than mere fame or wealth. Worst Thing: Some reviewers criticize the book for being overly dense or academic, making it difficult for casual readers to engage with Smith's theories. Others feel that while the book is thought-provoking, it can sometimes lack practical application for everyday decision-making.

  • The theory of moral sentiments
  • We can balance our caring about ourselves against some acts of selflessness
    • The impartial spectator
  • Humans desire to be loved and to be lovely
    • Want to both be praised and be worthy of that praise.
    • If you haven’t earned the appreciation, it both is praise for a different person (I didn’t do it) and reminds us of what we could have done
  • Life is full of choices that pit what we want against what an impartial spectator would say is right. How much are we willing to give up to be lovely
    • We often deceive the impartial spectator, especially in the moment
    • We avoid situations where we have to confront our shortcomings
    • We often couch decisions in selflessness to fool ourselves into thinking we are lovely. Confirmation bias
    • The world is full of dots. Connect then and you can draw anything. What matters is the ones you ignore
  • The rat race is run by rats
    • How do you reconcile our clear desire for money and fame with knowledge it doesn’t make it happier
    • Plutarch: conquer and conquer and conquers then relax. Or just relax
    • MBA trying to convince a content Mexican Fisher to expand so he can move to a coastal village in retirement
  • We are fascinated and exhilarated by fame bc we live vicariously through them and the near perfect life we imagine them to live
    • They get attention no matter whether they deserve it, which is nicr
    • But they give up leisure, work hard, etc
    • Outpouring of grief at the death of famous people is bc we imagine them to deserve a better fate
  • Fame and power and money is a glitzy way to be loved, but wisdom and virtue is the true path
  • How to be virtuous
    • Be appropriate so others know how to interact with you and vice versa
    • People try to match their emotional response so the giver and receiver match
  • Your vote doesn’t matter in cost benefit analysis. But categorical imperative. It would be wrong not to.
  • The world is complex and trying to control it too much is futile. It’s like trying to move pieces around a chess board, but each chess piece has its own natural movement
    • Dictators try to move people and society as if it were chess pieces, ignoring the natural movement of society, which causes huge problems
  • Even when we are right it is sometimes better to leave people or society alone bc we can’t predict the complex system and its consequences
  • We have a drive for greatness in us. That can be great for society but had for the individual
  • The poorest people today are so bc they are connected to so few people economically
    • Specialization and scale is what enables prosperity
  • Theory of moral sentiments is about the people around you. The wealth of nations is about the world of impersonal exchange
    • It’s a consistent view of how humans actually behave in two different spheres of life
    • In markets we need trade so we need specialization so we need impersonality
  • [[Comparative Advantage & Specialization]]
  • [[Walk in their shoes]]
  • [[Veil of Ignorance]]