Moneyball
Moneyball, a book by Michael Lewis (2003), highlights how creativity, framing, and robust technical analysis all played a part in the development of a new approach to talent management in baseball. It also exhibited great examples of the biases and psychological pitfalls that plague decision makers.
Review the article "Who's on First?" by Thaler & Sunstein (2003) from this module's assigned readings. This article reviews the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis.
Write a critique of the article including the following points:
- Examine why sabermetric-based player evaluation is such a shock to other executives in baseball.
- Evaluate why Beane is much more effective in his success by constructing a matrix of pitfalls and heuristics that highlight the differences between Beane's team and other executives.
- Moneyball highlights how people tend to overestimate the likelihood of success and end up facing financial loss-in this case, it meant forfeiting millions of dollars. Analyze a professional or personal decision (yours or otherwise) that highlights this predilection in spite of substantial losses.