Allison Schrager's An Economist Walks into a Brothel is out now
Allison Schrager's new book is out now. Watch her discuss the book on MSNBC
here, listen to her discuss it on NPR's Marketplace
here, and read excerpts via
Fast Company and strategy+business:
❝ In many ways the Big Wave Risk Assessment Group (BWRAG) Safety Summit on the North Shore of Oahu was different from other risk conferences I’ve attended. Risk conferences are usually my domain (I am a retirement economist, after all). Everyone (but me) was tan and in excellent physical shape. Most wore shorts, T‑shirts, and flip-flops. The day included workshops on holding your breath led by deep-sea divers. Former Special Forces officers instructed us on how to tie a tourniquet and perform an emergency tracheotomy with a pen. At one point, someone used the word gnarly, but as a technical term. I even renewed my CPR certification.
But in other ways, the big-wave safety summit was just like a pension risk conference: Most of the attendees were men; a majority of the time was spent looking at PowerPoint slides of numbers and figures; and there were impassioned debates about who bears responsibility for risk regulation. Surfers also shared the latest tools on how to minimize risk and discussed techniques on how to turn uncertainty into risk by estimating probabilities. And, like the financial specialists at pension conferences, the professional reputation of the people here depended on using risk management techniques, even though those same tools also expose them to bigger risks. In many ways, big-wave surfers are just like actuaries, except with better skin tone. … [strategy-business.com]
| ALLISON SCHRAGER is an award-winning journalist at Quartz & author of An Economist Walks into a Brothel.. Watch her discuss "Taking Risks in a Changing Economy" below, and learn more about booking Allison for your next event today. |
