Nobel Prize Conversations

“It is very good at developing good work habits”

In an increasingly chaotic world, how can you learn to concentrate deeply on a single problem? Guido Imbens found his powers of concentration while getting lost in chess games as a child. ”For four or five hours you would just shut out the rest of the world, you would be focused on one task.”

In this conversation, conducted in June 2022, Imbens also talks about the beauty of chess, the pitfalls in talking publicly about uncertain data and the challenge of keeping an open mind in research. He also speaks about the morning he received the news about his prize in economic sciences in October 2021 and how his kids and wife celebrated the award with him early in the morning.

The host of this podcast is nobelprize.org’s Adam Smith.

Nobel Prize Conversations was produced in cooperation with Fundación Ramón Areces.