Here's why you should care about Richard Thaler, the rockstar economist who just won the Nobel Prize

Economists have, for a long time, thought of themselves as scientists. They work in hard data and numbers—why wouldn't they?

But one of them proved there was so, so much more art to economics than anyone in that field ever wanted to admit. And that was the kind of thinking that just won him the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economic Science—and irreversibly changed the world of economics, and basically, the world.

Professor Richard Thaler is a 72-year-old professor of economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and he's being (rightly) celebrated thanks to his Nobel win on Monday. Thaler was already a giant in the world of economics and psychology—he'd previously had some mainstream success with his New York Times bestselling book, "Nudge." He's also a great follow on Twitter at @R_Thaler. And he's gotta be the only economist who'll ever gonna get to share screen time with a pop star in a major movie, as he did when he was featured during one of the explainer segments in The Big Short Read more...