We describe the departure from the model as an error. We might equally describe the model as a hopeful guess about us. The remedy is rarely exhortation. It is a change to the situation so that the easier choice is also the better one. The evidence here is thinner than the confident commentary suggests, and the honest position is a shrug with a direction of travel. The usual story is that we are careless calculators. The better story is that we are careful about the wrong things.
What follows
The mind that evolved for small groups and immediate dangers is now asked to manage a pension. It does its best. What looks like loyalty from the outside is usually something simpler from the inside: tiredness, a deadline, a wish not to look foolish. Institutions know all this, of course, which is why the long game is so rarely left to chance. Nobody sets out to be governed by the long game, yet it shapes an astonishing share of the ordinary day.
