All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions

A critique of the academic journal system and why peer review no longer serves modern research. They explore how digital distribution upended curation and created slow, incentive-misaligned refereeing. Solutions discussed include expert-only, non-anonymous reviews and a platform for faster, reputation-based community curation. The conversation also covers bloated papers, signal jamming, and practical seeding strategies.

Alex Edmans, London Business School finance professor and author of May Contain Lies, explores why misinformation spreads and how institutions and incentives amplify bias. He discusses academia’s role, the risks of speaking truth in organizations, and practical strategies like cognitive diversity and reframing facts to reduce identity-driven reactions.

Nick Bloom, Stanford economist who created text-based uncertainty measures like the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index. He breaks down how text, market and survey measures differ. He explains why media, politics and AI drive modern uncertainty. He outlines how markets can appear calm and why firms should build flexibility and contingency plans.

A critique of IRR as an investment rule, highlighting its multiple or missing solutions and sensitivity to cash flow signs. Discussion of how IRR ignores scale and timing, favoring percentages over absolute value. Examination of how financing and payment plans can make IRR misleading or arbitrarily inflated. A clear case for using NPV as the proper decision metric.

A lively debate about whether the financial sector actually benefits society. They probe why finance’s value is often unseen and why markets can outperform central planning. The conversation tackles critiques of rent-seeking, the risks of exploiting unsophisticated actors, and how incentives, innovation, and AI might reshape market coordination.

Dirk Jenter, a finance professor at LSE who studies CEOs and executive pay, joins the conversation. He discusses who typically rises to CEO and the common career paths. He explores why boards often favor insiders and when firms bring back former leaders. He also talks about how pay is set, including the role of firm scale and peer comparisons.

Adi Sunderam, Harvard Business School professor and NBER research associate, explains why people adopt community-driven interpretations of data. He discusses closed model sets, social pressures that exclude alternatives, how post-hoc story selection can make unlikely explanations stick, and organizational remedies like model-driven teams to counteract echo chambers.

A lively discussion comparing public mutual funds to private alternatives and why their fee structures differ. They explore why alternatives often show positive alpha and why managers cap fund size. The conversation highlights performance fees like two-and-twenty and the role of liquidity and costly due diligence in shaping incentives.

Nick Bloom, Stanford economics professor and leading remote-work researcher. He walks through how hybrid work stuck, randomized trials on productivity and retention, the surprising link to higher birthrates, and practical rules for firms like coordinated office days and output-based reviews. Short, clear takes on balancing mentorship, deep work, and long-term risks.

In this engaging discussion, Steven Pinker, an acclaimed experimental psychologist and Harvard professor, dives into his latest book, exploring the intricacies of common knowledge. He reveals how common knowledge influences human behavior and financial markets, relating it to speculative trading. Pinker cleverly navigates the pitfalls of mutual knowledge, the psychology behind irrational trading, and the delicate balance of free speech in academic settings. Expect intriguing insights into how collective understanding shapes our actions and societal norms.