Bounded Rationality
Decision making under real limits of time, attention, and information, where good enough replaces optimal.
Why it matters now
Nobody computes the climate consequences of a grocery purchase. Designs that assume perfect calculation fail; designs that work with human shortcuts succeed. Default green tariffs, clear labels, and simple thresholds move far more carbon than exhortation, precisely because they meet attention where it actually is.
Where this is happening on Earth
- North AmericaHerbert Simon, Carnegie Mellon UniversityIntroduced satisficing, the idea that people stop at the first acceptable option, and won a Nobel for it.
- Israel and AsiaDaniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, Hebrew University of JerusalemMapped the systematic shortcuts that make human judgement predictable, and therefore designable around.
- EuropeGerd Gigerenzer, Max Planck Institute, BerlinShowed that simple rules of thumb often beat complex models in uncertain environments, including ecological ones.
- AsiaIndia's star rating labels for appliancesA single visible number shifted a national market toward efficient refrigerators and air conditioners faster than any subsidy.
- AfricaM-KOPA pay-as-you-go solar, KenyaDaily micro-payments match how household cash actually flows, which is why solar spread where lump-sum pricing had failed.
The idea itself
The encyclopedia entry first, then live searches at journals and magazines that keep returning current work on this specific idea.
Current reporting from around the world
Standing feeds at reputable periodicals. These stay fresh on their own, which is why they are here instead of a list of articles that would be out of date within a season.