In conditions of uncertainty, humans, like other animals, herd together for protection.

I do think that procrastination evolved in humans for good reasons. If you're trying to stay alive as a human being on the savanna 20,000 years ago, worrying about what's right behind that bush is a lot more important than worrying about what might happen three weeks from now.

Capitalism, after all, is no fun when real failure becomes a possibility.

Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably smart - smarter even sometimes than the smartest people in them.

The stock market has an insidious effect on C.E.O.s' moods, because of its impact not just on their companies but on their own bank accounts.

Meeting external deadlines is much harder than meeting internal ones. On the other hand, internal deadlines sometimes don't feel real, and are therefore easy to evade.

The oil market is especially sensitive even to a hint of expansion or contraction in supply.