Rationality's Edge: Where Logic ends and Human Nature Begins

Rationality’s Edge is a journey through the puzzles, paradoxes, and thought experiments that reveal how human reasoning really works.

Why do rational people betray each other? Why can more choice make us less happy? Why do good incentives sometimes create disastrous outcomes? From the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Monty Hall Problem to the Trolley Problem, Goodhart’s Law, the Black Swan, and the Fermi Paradox, this book explores the strange situations where logic bends, certainty collapses, and common sense leads us astray.

Written for curious readers rather than specialists, each chapter uses vivid examples to show how these puzzles shape everyday decisions, politics, economics, ethics, technology, and the future of society. Along the way, Rationality’s Edge reveals why intelligence alone is not enough: good judgment requires humility, imagination, and the courage to question our own assumptions.

For readers who enjoy psychology, philosophy, behavioural economics, decision-making, and big ideas, this book offers a clear and engaging guide to the limits of reason. For readers of Kahneman, Taleb, and Levitt — and anyone who suspects the world is stranger than it looks.