Episode 04: Terry Burnham
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Biological Economics and Human Behavior
Terry Burnham is a Professor of Finance at Chapman University, and an author whose works include Mean Genes and Mean Markets And Lizard Brains.
But he was also in the military, a former Goldman Sachs employee, and founded a startup; all experiences which lend to his unique perspective on biology, economics, and psychology.
In this episode of unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc, we talk about his time at Harvard Business School, using biology to make sense of human behaviors, and the very human concept of privacy, willpower, and more.
Episode Quotes:
On studying human behavior vs animal behavior:
“The idea that we're stupid is just crazy, right? We developed a COVID vaccine in a few months, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So humans are super, super, super smart. And any idea that they're stupid is in itself crazy. So the difference between people who study animals and people who study people is that animal people have a better framework. And that framework is grounded in natural selection.“
On reputation management & road rage:
“You have to manage your reputation. You have to be willing to fight for yourself, but not in stupid situations on the road. It's a one-shot interaction. You'll never see that person again. So goodbye. Go ahead. Thank you. You won goodbye. I'll go home to my kids tonight.“
On the methodologies of biologists and the methodologists of economists:
“What's challenging for economics is that humans live in a very strange world. And that world is so different from the world that we evolved in that most of our behavior looks silly. So when you do maximization models, they don't predict human behavior very well at all because what are we maximizing? No one knows.“