People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
Boy does it take a while to get to the main topic of the title. From the article&#x2F;podcast:<p><pre><code>    ...
    THALER: Well, first of all, when we use this phrase 
    libertarian paternalism, we’re using libertarian as
    an adjective. And so we’re trying to say we’re going
    to design policies that don’t force anyone to do anything.
    So the claim that we’re trying to tell people what to
    do, or force them to do things, is just completely wrong.
    We are also not trying to tell them to do what we think is
    smart. We’re trying to help people do what they want to do.

    I like to use G.P.S. as an analogy of what we’re trying to
    do. So, I have a terrible sense of direction. And Google
    Maps is a lifesaver for me. Now, if I want to go visit you,
    I can plug in your address, and suppose I’m walking across
    the park, and I see, “Oh, there’s a softball game over
    there. I think I’ll go watch that for a while,” Google Maps
    doesn’t scold me. It will re-compute a new route if I’ve
    gone a bit out of my way. It doesn’t suggest addresses to
    me. It just suggests a route. And if there’s a traffic jam,
    it suggests maybe you should alter your route.

    So, we don’t think people are dumb. We think the world is
    hard. I mean, figuring out how much to save for retirement
    is a really hard cognitive problem that very few economists
    have solved for themselves. And it’s not only cognitively
    hard, it involves delay of gratification, which people find
    hard. It’s just like navigating in a strange city is hard.
    So, why not try to help? When I first was working with the
    U.K. Behavioral Insight Team, the first “Nudge unit,” the
    phrase I kept saying in every meeting with some minister
    was, “If you want to get people to do something, make it
    easy. Remove the barriers.” That’s what we’re about.
    ...</code></pre>