Thaler may not have felt all that sure of himself, but he was quick to see that others shouldn’t feel so sure of themselves, either. And he noticed that when he had his fellow economists to dinner, they filled up on cashews, which meant they had less appetite for the meal. More to the point, he noticed that they tended to be relieved when he removed the cashew nuts, so they didn’t ruin their dinners. “The idea that it could make you better off to reduce your choices—that idea was alien to economics,” he said.
