Hypernomics and Improving Our Understanding of Markets and Decision-Making Processes, with Doug Howarth

Episode notes

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Doug Howarth about hypernomics and improving our understanding of markets and decision-making processes. At fourteen, Doug Howarth was faced with a problem that would pursue him for decades. He had just been exposed to the 2D and 3D coordinate systems of René Descartes. While they offered a framework for many problems, he wondered: What other plotting systems exist that we haven’t seen? Shortly after, Doug found out that his kidneys were failing and that clouded his thinking. Persevering through this challenge, he majored in economics at Washington State University, graduating top of his class. In 2002, Doug’s best friend, Tim Schreiner, gave him a kidney. When he came to after the operation, his brain was clear for the first time in thirty years, and he was determined to make maximal use of his improved mental capacity. Not long after that, when he and his wife went shopping for a new washing machine, as she weighed her options aloud, he realized she had solved a multidimensional problem in her head.