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

Goals or boundaries?

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

5d ago

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

5d ago

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

Rationality is bullshit — Part 1

The term ‘rationality’ and its derivatives lack accuracy, more often than not meaning whatever the person using it wants it to mean. Might…

Oct 25

A chessboard with pieces made from cogwheels

Oct 25

Many of our beliefs are wrong but some are useful

We may have some beliefs that are true, but many, even though they serve us well, are at the very least open to question.

Oct 18

Stylized heads showing anchors in their brains

Oct 18

Absolute goals in a world of relative trade-offs

Some decisions often come down to how much money, time or effort something we want (or want to avoid) is worth. This can be remarkably hard…

Oct 11

A juggler juggling four normal and one huge ball

Oct 11

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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