Kahneman's final lesson

The recent revelation about Daniel Kahneman's death (which took place in March 2024) has given pause to those who follow his work. The Nobel Prize-winning psychologist, who fundamentally changed our understanding of human decision-making, chose to end his life through assisted suicide in Switzerland last year. At 90, facing declining kidney function and increasing mental lapses, Kahneman made what might be his most personally significant decision with characteristic clarity and analytical precision. What's striking about this final choice is how perfectly it embodied the principles he spent his life studying. Kahneman, who wrote extensively about how humans make decisions under uncertainty, approached his mortality with the same analytical framework he applied to economic behaviour. In his parting email, he explained that he had believed since his teenage years that "the miseries and indignities of the last years of life are superfluous." This wasn't an impulsive decision but a carefully considered one, made with full awareness o