One of the best things that ever happened to me was convincing Richard Thaler to become my graduate advisor. We have now worked together for more than half my life, and he is surely not just an amazing mentor but also one of my dearest friends.

While Dick and I have collaborated on many subjects, from myopic loss aversion to naïve diversification, our main project has been Save More Tomorrow™. As noted by the Nobel committee, Save More Tomorrow attempted to apply the insights of behavioral finance – people need help resisting temptation and planning for the future – to a savings program that could be implemented at the company level. My own calculations suggest that the program has helped more than 15 million Americans boost their savings.

In honor of Dick’s well-deserved prize, I thought I’d share three insights on what makes him such a special person and thinker. 

1. Dick has the truly rare ability to see what is right there and yet unnoticed by everyone else in the room. 
2. Dick can sometimes come across as rather harsh. If you come to him with a poor idea, he doesn’t mind telling you why it’s the worst idea ever. And then, when you come back with a new idea, he doesn’t mind telling you that this idea is even worse. And yet, he keeps asking you to return with more ideas because he’s really a mensch. When the right idea comes (and this can take a while) he’ll recognize it right away. 
3. One of the tricks I pulled early on to get more attention than other grad students was to bring him dark chocolate biscotti and a good cappuccino in the late morning. He certainly didn’t like all of my ideas, but he was always willing to listen, especially while he sipped his coffee. This all just proves that even Dick Thaler is a human, too.