Reading
How We Decide
Jonah Lehrer ends his wonderful book “How We Decide” with “We finally have tools that can pierce the mystery of the mind, revealing the intricate machinery that shapes our behavior. What we need to do now is put this knowledge to work.” The aim of this blog is just that: to explore how knowledge of the brain can be turned into something practical, actionable.
While How We Decide has been an inspiration for this blog, it is by no means the only one.
The Logic Of Failure: Recognizing And Avoiding Error In Complex Situations
We could not talk about thinking errors without mentioning The Logic of Failure. This book describes a number of thinking errors. Neuroscience can now explain the underlying causes behind some of these errors. This book deals in part with known errors (Tchernobyl!), in part with simulations where study participants get their
hand at managing a complex system without killing anybody.
In order to turn knowledge from neuroscience into something practical and actionable, we need to integrate the raw data into new models. One such model is proposed in On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee. This book deals with how the cortex processes information. The general concept is that we operate by making predictions. These predictions shape what signals are transmitted. This will be a topic for several blog posts.
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
Through many stories, Ori and Rom Brafman tell us how we fool ourselves. Some of the topics well known: loss aversion, value attribution, our reluctance to speak up in a group. They are told with fresh, entertaining stories. Other topics are less often covered in the context of thinking errors.
There are of course many more books worth mentioning, and they will be covered over time. Here are a couple:
How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory
Management Rewired: Why Feedback Doesn’t Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science
Please drop us a note if you have a suggestion.
Some of these books are available for the Kindle.
Kindle: Amazon’s 6″ Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)
These include:
How We Decide
