Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy has been a wonderful read. With American culture based on “immediate everything” is there any reason to pause? Yes in fact Frank illustrates why delay means a lot to us. Are we as aware of the decision making errors we make in rapid response?
A return of serve in professional tennis is all about rapid response. With end-lines 78 feet apart a tennis player has almost 500 milliseconds to respond. Has this rapid response been ingrained into our culture? Probably, and we need to change this.
The opening two chapters of Wait address how we regard making decisions on rapid response. Frank provides valuable insights that rapid response actually robs us of wise decision making. There is a lot we can learn from the opportunity of delay. Wait refers at many points the impact of Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow, the ground breaking research with Amos Tversky.
Kahneman won the noble prize in economics for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty. Wait builds upon the impact of delays in decision-making.
Chapter three: “High-Frequency Trading, Fast and Slow” is the story of UNX Inc, a trading firm in California. The ability of Wall Street to trade stocks between 8 to 14 milliseconds is fascinating. Yet Frank reveals the opportunity by UNX to save a lot of money by actually slowing down their trading. Sounds odd but proves to be true. Again the insights to Thinking Fast and Slow are remarkable. High frequency trading was the subject of Michael Lewis’ amazing book Flash Boys.