I recently finished reading Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide. It is a remarkably well-written book full of insight and wisdom into the decision making process, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Below I've highlighted a few broad philosophical takeaways from the book. (These are not necessarily themes of the book, just thoughts inspiried by it.)
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Use meta-cognition in the decision making process. Ask yourself what kind of decision you are making. The more dimensions a decision has, the more you should rely on your intuition (or "gut feeling"), but always tempered against an analysis of potential biases.
Always entertain competing hypotheses, and seek them out.
Get to know common human biases because you can't avoid them unless you know they exist.
Get to know common human biases because you can't avoid them unless you know they exist.
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I am now making my way through Lehrer's earlier book, Proust was a Neuroscientist, which is turning out to be an equally delightful read. Jason Kottke interviewed Lehrer about the book last February. Here are all of Kottke's posts about Lehrer.
Jonah blogs at The Frontal Cortex.
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Previously on Wehr in the World . . .
Don't eat the marshmallow, and Lehrer's related New Yorker article.
The self-esteem fallacy.
