Koen Smets – Medium

Koen Smets

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Best of Koenfucius 2023

My 10 most read posts of the past year

Jan 4

Best of Koenfucius 2023

Jan 4

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We are all economists

Mainstream and behavioural economics are two sides of the same coin

Jun 3, 2016

We are all economists

Jun 3, 2016

The moral arithmetic of everyday choices

Trade-offs can be challenging, but when morals get involved, they’re in a different league — yet we make them all the time (and reveal our…

Dec 20

Jeff Bezos’ superyacht Koru

Dec 20

Two kinds of beliefs

Beliefs are the scaffolding of understanding, and they inform, at least in part, almost every decision we make. But they come in two very…

Dec 13

An aerial view of Barcelona, showing the rigid, uncompromising design of the newer parts of the town, alongside the fluid, idiosyncratic nature of the old town

Dec 13

Everyone their own reality?

A controversial car commercial uncovers the trouble with the notion of objective reality

Dec 6

An elephant

Dec 6

Goals or boundaries?

Goals are what we seek to pursue, boundaries are what we must keep within. Or are they?

Nov 29

A target placed on top of a precarious rock in the see

Nov 29

The Good, the Bad, and the Binary

Is our tendency to divide the world into ‘good’ people and ‘bad’ people all that helpful?

Nov 22

Two cowboys, one with a white hat, the other with a black hat, and both with waistcoats adorned with 0s and 1s

Nov 22

Naïve and inadequate

We have a tendency to believe not only that the reality is exactly how we see it, but also that just a little information is often enough…

Nov 15

Naïve and inadequate

Nov 15

The limits of pragmatic decision-making

We are generally pragmatic decision makers, neither totally calculated and logical, nor entirely irrational. But our pragmatism has limits…

Nov 8

A painting of a maze with the entrance in the distance, and two exists with closed, thorny gates at the front.

Nov 8

Rationality is bullshit — Part 2

Is it possible to categorize our own choices, decisions and behaviours as rational or irrational? Or is the notion of rationality in this…

Nov 1

A surreal set of scales with cogwheels in the scales, unable to tip either way

Nov 1

Koen Smets

Koen Smets

Accidental behavioural economist in search of wisdom using insights from (behavioural) economics in organization development. On Twitter/Bluesky as @koenfucius

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