Lynn Thoman

We all love to win the promotion, the deal, the auction, the house.

But sometimes winning turns out to be the biggest mistake.

Imagine celebrating a victory only to realize you've paid too much, promised too much, or believed too much.

That's the winner's curse.

And it doesn't just happen in business.

It happens in everyday life.

Why do smart people, even Nobel Prize winners, fall for it?

And more importantly, how can we stop ourselves from doing things that make absolutely no sense?

Hi, everyone.

I'm Lynn Thoman, and this is Three Takeaways.

On Three Takeaways, I talk with some of the world's best thinkers, business leaders, writers, politicians, newsmakers, and scientists.

Each episode ends with three key takeaways to help us understand the world and maybe even ourselves a little better.

Today, I'm excited to be with Richard Thaler.

Richard won the Nobel Prize in Economics, but not for solving some abstract mathematical puzzle.

He won it for noticing something that others had missed.

People are irrational, predictably irrational.

We overpay at auctions.

We save too little for retirement.

We make the same mistakes over and over, not randomly, but predictably.

And here's the thing.