Chris Brown: Avalanches and System 1 Thinking

Nov 10, 2019

01:33:09

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Chris Brown is in human risk management and practice is set in backcountry snow. He grew up outside of Philadelphia and after graduating with a degree in Urban Design/Architecture, he moved to Utah to pursue certification with the AMGA (American Mountain Guides Association) in avalanche training.

Chris works as a ski guide and avalanche/snow science professional, but his real job is helping skiers overcome their biases. He incorporates the work of Kahneman and Tversky, Richard Thaler and other great researchers into his classes and we found his intentionality in decision making noteworthy.

We had a great conversation with Chris and we also want to express our gratitude to friend and colleague, Ben Granlund, for connecting us with Chris. Ben attended one of Chris’ classes and found it so engaging that he referred us to Chris. Ben was also delighted that Chris relies heavily on behavioral science and reminds us that the biggest threat to your life in avalanche country is your own decision making.

After our recording stopped, we discussed Guide Services for training. If you are interested, check out AMGA (amga.com) and the American Avalanche Association: https://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/

Links

Chris Brown Email: chrisbr862@gmail.com

Chris Brown Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbskiclimb/

Ian McCammon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKeoF53syKw

Phil Tetlock “Super Forecasters”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV5Gicb66WA

Familiarity Bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familiarity_heuristic

Expert Halo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect

System 1 / System 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow

Premortem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-mortem

Bruce Tremper: https://backcountrymagazine.com/stories/video-avalanche-expert-bruce-tremper-risk/

Bayesian Decision Making: https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Bayesian_decision_theory

First Tracks: https://www.boston.com/culture/ski-guru/2012/01/31/its_all_about_f