It's not a case of: 'Read this book and then you'll think differently. I've written this book, and I don't think differently.

Optimism is normal, but some fortunate people are more optimistic than the rest of us. If you are genetically endowed with an optimistic bias, you hardly need to be told that you are a lucky person - you already feel fortunate.

So your emotional state really has a lot to do with what you're thinking about and what you're paying attention to.

I don't try to be clever at all. The idea that I could see what no one else can is an illusion.

The concept of loss aversion is certainly the most significant contribution of psychology to behavioral economics.

If people are failing, they look inept. If people are succeeding, they look strong and good and competent. That's the 'halo effect.' Your first impression of a thing sets up your subsequent beliefs. If the company looks inept to you, you may assume everything else they do is inept.

People are very good [at] thinking about agents. The mind is set really beautifully to think about agents. Agents have traits. Agents have behaviors. We understand agents. We form global impression of their personalities. We are really not very good at remembering sentences where the subject of the sentence is an abstract notion.