Good practice is evidence based: the more comprehensive, precise, and timely the facts, the better the decisions. This is the basis of enlightened thinking and acting. And how is it with us? In an experiment, students of Education and students of Business Administration had to build and run a jeans factory.

The educators were more successful. They tried to understand the task and the situation, as well as the expectations. Business economists, by contrast, used the knowledge they’d derived from books. Companies are team production platforms. Despite this reality, company practices with their individual feedback systems and performance wages continue to breed lone fighters. Genetic diagnostics reveal predispositions to selected diseases, but many people prefer not to find out. And then there are companies that sell horoscopes.

We know that smart people can also make stupid mistakes, because smart people are forgetful, are pressed for time, and miscalculate. We call this "bounded rationality". In addition, there are intelligent people who make mistakes in full consciousness, by not doing what they know (the business managers running the jeans factory); by not wanting to know what they could know (gene diagnostics); or by using unscientific knowledge (horoscopes) or ignoring scientific knowledge (with respect to feedback and performance wages).

I wish all of us an instructive Spring Semester 2020 - with a lot of factual knowledge about causes and purposes; with critical thinking when measuring and interpreting; and with insightful decisions about goals and means. I warmly welcome the newly enrolled students at the University of Lucerne. I wish you a good, successful, and fulfilling academic year 2020.

Prof. Dr. Bruno Staffelbach, Rector