Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Why Recessions Suck More Than Expansions Rock (georgesaines.com)
15 points by gsaines on April 6, 2011 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments



It's simple really. If you increase the value of 100 by 10% and then decrease the resultant by 10%, you get an overall reduction in value (even if you do it the other way around) ;)


Point 3 refers to loss aversion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion


I have read that in studies, people require a gain of $2 to make up for the loss of $1, and it would have illustrated the point beautifully, but I couldn't find a citation. Alas!


I first read about it in Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational".


I enjoyed the post but I'm struggling to figure out exactly the point it was trying to make?


I found the result worthwhile as a counterweight to negative thinking. I showed the draft to a close friend and he had a similar reaction which was "so what?" I fleshed out the conclusion a bit more, but you're right that it still doesn't have a strong takeaway. I might just be too wrapped up in my interest in empirical studies of human happiness to write a really useful blog article on the topic, but I've got to keep trying! :)




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: