Summary

Chapter 3 introduces Amos Tversky. Amos was born in Palestine after his parents fled Russia to escape antisemitism. Amos was a sociable child and intellectually gifted. After finishing school, he joined the army as a paratrooper and was known for his lack of hesitation when jumping out of a plane. He quickly became a commander and was awarded a medal for bravery after rescuing one of his men from certain death during a training exercise. He was a gifted and amusing storyteller, very personally popular, and widely considered to be a genius.

After leaving the army, Amos went to Hebrew University to study psychology, where he became interested in the area of decision theory, particularly the work of Ward Edwards. Edwards work showed what appeared to be irrationality in the way people thought of their preferences and posited that the context in which people compared...