Thaler, Richard

"Regret is powerful. The fear of regret often drives our decisions more than expected utility."

"Adaptation is real. We adjust to positive and negative life changes faster than we expect."

"Surprises delight or disappoint us more than expected outcomes, even when identical in fact."

"Money does buy happiness, but with decreasing returns. The thousandth dollar matters less than the hundredth."

"Relative income matters more than absolute income. We care about how much others have."

"The hedonic treadmill means we adapt to salary increases quickly. The happiness boost fades."

"Experiences bring more lasting happiness than possessions. Memories outlast material goods."

"Doing something is often more satisfying than having it done. The process matters."

"Helping others produces genuine happiness. Altruism isn't just moral - it makes you feel good."

"Collaboration works better than competition in many settings. We underestimate the power of cooperation."

"Trust is the currency of relationships. Once broken, it's hard to restore."

"Reciprocity is automatic. When someone does something for you, you want to repay them."

"Authority influences us profoundly. We trust experts even when we shouldn't always."

"Liking leads to buying. We favor people we like, then we like them even more for this preference."

"Scarcity increases perceived value. The fear of missing out drives decisions."

"Consensus creates confidence. If everyone else does it, we assume it's right."

"Habits form through repetition with rewards. Build the behavior, then the environment will sustain it."

"Rules of thumb serve us well but can lead us astray. Heuristics are fast but imperfect."

"We are overconfident in our knowledge and abilities. Dunning-Kruger is real."

"Confirmation bias makes us seek information that confirms what we already believe."

"We rationalize our decisions after we make them. We construct narratives that justify our choices."

"Present bias means we overvalue immediate rewards. The future self is a stranger to us."

"Hyperbolic discounting means we want immediate gratification now but prefer patience later."

"Willpower is a limited resource. It depletes with use, especially when hungry or tired."

"The planning fallacy: we underestimate how long things take. Optimism bias is human."

"Attention is selective. We see what we're looking for and miss what we're not."

"Priming works: exposure to concepts influences your thinking in subtle ways."

"Numbers trigger our intuition. We have gut feelings about statistics without calculating them."

"Vivid examples are more persuasive than statistics. A single story beats a million data points."

"We prefer certain outcomes to uncertain ones, even if expected value favors the gamble."