If you are involved in communicating about risk, you need to have read the writing of Dan Gardner and Cass Sunstein.
I don’t mean flick through. I mean ‘read’ in the way Mortimer Adler suggested.
A Simple Rule of Thumb
Unsurprisingly for a chemical lobbyist, I discuss issues around risk and cost-benefit analysis a lot.
To speed up well-informed exchanges on these issues, I’ve developed a simple rule of thumb when people ask me about risk or cost-benefit issues.
I ask them “what do think of the writing of Dan Gardner and Cass Sunstein?”
If they say they don’t know, I quickly end the conversation. I’d be wasting my and their time.
It may seem harsh or even rude. It’s not meant to be. I just want to set a benchmark for an informed discussion.
Gardner and Sunstein basically developed the whole genre of risk and our understanding of it today.
Cass Sunstein wrote the regulatory model for dealing with risk and cost-benefit analysis. He’s influenced governments in the USA and in Europe.
Dan Gardner’s wrote the most accessible book on risk, alongside a host of classics.
Every regulator I know in this area has digested their publications. Their writings are the blueprints that most risk policy and regulation are built on.
Books signed by the authour
I have a small collection of good books signed by the authour. Ronald Coase and Gordon Tullock have pride of place.
This Friday I was happy to add Dan Gardner’s signature to the collection.
