Radical Uncertainty

Mervyn King

• 02 september 2021
• 9780349143996

Samenvatting:

This ambitious and thought-provoking new work offers an overarching analysis of decision-making in all walks of life.

'An elegant and careful guide to thinking about personal and social economics, especially in a time of uncertainty. The timing is impeccable'
New York Times Book Review


This major, timely and critically acclaimed work asks a vitally important question: when uncertainty is all around us, and the facts are not clear, how can we make good decisions?

In the wake of a global pandemic and a financial crisis before that, is it clearer than ever that we don't know what the future will hold. But because we must make decisions anyway our response is to regularly crave certainties which cannot exist and invent knowledge we cannot have, forgetting that humans are successful because we have adapted to an environment that we understand only imperfectly. This remarkable book draws on history, mathematics, economics and philosophy to highlight the most successful - and most short-sighted - methods of dealing with an unknowable future. Ultimately, as we have seen to our cost, the prevalent method of our age falls short, giving us a false understanding of our power to make predictions, leading to many of the problems we experience today. Radical Uncertainty shows how we can change that for the better.

'Rarely is a book's publication as well-timed as John Kay and Mervyn King's Radical Uncertainty'
Wall Street Journal

'Entertaining and enlightening . . . This is a necessary critique and they make it with verve, knowledge and a wealth of stories'
Financial Times

'An elegant, wise and timely book' Irish Times

'Jam-packed with erudition' New Statesman

'A brilliant new book'

Daily Telegraph

'Well written . . . and often entertaining'

The Times

'A sparkling analysis'

Prospect

When uncertainty is all around us, and the facts are not clear, how can we make good decisions?

We do not know what the future will hold, particularly in the midst of a crisis, but we must make decisions anyway. We regularly crave certainties which cannot exist and invent knowledge we cannot have, forgetting that humans are successful because we have adapted to an environment that we understand only imperfectly. Throughout history we have developed a variety of ways of coping with the radical uncertainty that defines our lives.

This incisive and eye-opening book draws on biography, history, mathematics, economics and philosophy to highlight the most successful - and most short-sighted - methods of dealing with an unknowable future. Ultimately, the authors argue, the prevalent method of our age falls short, giving us a false understanding of our power to make predictions, leading to many of the problems we experience today.

Tightly argued, provocative and written with wit and flair, Radical Uncertainty is at once an exploration of the limits of numbers and a celebration of human instinct and wisdom.