How We Decide
"How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer is an exploration of all the nuances that go into the decision-making process. It is an approachable blend of cutting edge science an anecdotes about how decisions people made influenced their lives (both in life-and-death situations and the ordinary). He explores the decision making process through various facets, among them: dopamine, feelings, thinking, morals, internal argumentative dialog, and thinking about thinking. I suspect a second reading is in order as I usually find reading on airplanes to be a distracting.
Some quotes from the book that I wanted to capture:
159: Herbert Simon said it best: "A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."
188: As Mother Teresa put it, "If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will."
244-249: the author lays out decision-making guidelines:
- Simple problems require reason
- Novel problems also require reason
- Embrace uncertainty
- You know more than you know
- Think about thinking
253: decision-making strategy known as Cockpit Resource Management (CRM)