Rarely in life, or in a certain field, there is someone who knows everything. A know-it-all guru if you must. If you want to make improvements in your life, focusing on what not to do should be your go-to tactic. Want to have more money? Start spending less. You don’t necessarily have to start businesses or learn complicated investing strategies. Do, or should I say stop doing part of the things you’re doing now. This is the easiest way to rid yourself of undesired negative behaviors. Notable Quotes: Cynicism is present all over the book, while that might be nice for a pessimist, it definitely isn't for an optimist like me, not even for non-pessimists all over the world. I could understand this if that cynicism was at the very least standing on some facts, but even that is not the case. We tend to blame one thing, or one person when something bad happens. But usually, there’s more going on. A short compedium of 99 cognitive errors explained in short and acompanied of examples and anecdotes.

These are examples of cognitive biases, simple errors we all make in our day-to-day thinking. But by knowing what they are and how to spot them, we can avoid them and make better choices - whether dealing with a personal problem or a business negotiation; trying to save money or make money; working out what we do or don't want in life, and how best to get it. Survivorship bias: By exposing ourselves to loud newly-rich founders shouting online that they “made it” under 3 months, we start to dream of our own villa-style life. But this is the wrong approach. Survivorship bias explains that we have a tendency to focus only on things that survived – big corporations, rich people, old buildings that are still holding. This way we fail to register all the things that didn’t survive – all the founders and the companies that bankrupted in just a few years. Before making a conclusion, quitting your job to start your own company, consider what didn’t endure. Bruno S. Frey, Professor of Economics, University of Basel, and founder of the field of economic happiness research We’re not great at determining value because we mostly use availability and bad comparisons to do it. The social proof chapter in The Art of Thinking Clearly helped me to understand how chasing likes instead of creating your own style is actually detrimental to your work. Do you want to be proud of what you made or of how it was received by a bunch of anonymous strangers?

Rational Decision Making and The Sunk Cost Fallacy

Presence of something is more noticeable and valued than its absence. e.g. presence of disease than its absence. OR getting off a plane and not noticing that it did not crash. This is due to a phenomenon called social proof, which makes us feel like our behavior is correct when it matches other people’s. It can be useful as a starting point for a list of cognitive biases. However, it is mere plagarism of other texts. And the story of success is the one that we all want to hear. That is what the global media tells us. Victories are not only more celebrated, but are also more visible than failures. For every Apple that made it big, there are a thousand others who did not.

Now I understood why it has become so popular. Frankly, the author has done a great job here by surveying the wide field of thinking errors. Even though some of the information is already known, there are still some issues highlighted that are very important to us that we avoid or try not to perceive most of the time. I think there is a lot to learn from this book. I will definitely read it a second time in a few months. Rolf Dobelli has done it again! Not only does he open our eyes, now he wakes us up. Because of his rigorous scientific analysis combined with his shattering philosophical approach, he is never satisfied with the superficial. So, grab Rolf’s book and don’t let it go!” Netflix. Perhaps that is the easiest way to understand this. With its abundance of choices, we tend to spend as much time in finding something as we do in actually watching it.

Rolf Dobelli’s book, The Art of Thinking Clearly, is a compendium of systematic errors in decision making. While the list of fallacies is not complete, it’s a great launching pad into the best of what others have already figured out. For example, if you want to lose weight so you can feel comfortable around other people when you’re without your t-shirt on, it will be much easier to not do certain things at first: not eating junk food, not missing a workout, not filling your refrigerator with microwave food. I bought this book for €1 and was disappointed; I imagine it's much more of a let down at full price.) I wanted to be mollified by dazzling prose, but I had to settle for somewhat dull attempts at wit. I wanted to be satisfied with lucid, if too concise, explanations of these biases, but I had to settle for somewhat tepid attempts to demonstrate these biases without getting drawn into the bigger discussions of the cognitive and behavioural science that underlies them. Dobelli ties his own hands here, to poor effect.

Your brain is evolutionarily wired with shortcut ways to help you survive. Unfortunately, these psychological tendencies don’t serve us well now that we don’t have to avoid being eaten by a lion every day. These are examples of cognitive biases, simple errors we all make in our day-to-day thinking. But by knowing what they are and how to spot them, we can avoid them and make better choices-whether dealing with a personal problem or a business negotiation; trying to save money or make money; working out what we do or don't want in life: and how best to get it. Iris Bohnet, Professor and Academic Dean Harvard Kennedy School, Director of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory) It’s easier to become great at the things you’re naturally good at than it is the things you’re average-to-poor at. Not only that, but we also mistakenly attribute successes to our own abilities and failures to external factors.I personally don't see the time I put to read this book as wasted, in fact I see it as investment into better filter wrong info in my journey, and also to understand better, the people that base their life on such books, as I believe I can do that a little bit better than before I started reading this. Tenley E. Albright, Director, MIT Collaborative Initiatives and Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School Experts don’t know everything. What they share is based on their field. Blindly following their advice can be harmful. Learning however, takes on more forms than one. And it certainly has more sources than one. Especially today, when so much of the world is open to us.

Anthem | Ayn Rand | Book Review | Mind About Matters on The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand’s gift of Objectivism to the World In engaging prose and with practical examples and anecdotes, an eye-opening look at human reasoning and essential reading for anyone with important decisions to make.The book is not so much about how to think critically but rather it tells you about 99 fallacies. Now, when you're aware of the systematic biases of your thinking that may help you think more critically. But then this is a roundabout way of getting you to think critically and not what the book's title and cover promise. Finally, this is 2021, you know all those fallacies already. If you want more in-depth stuff, it's out there. And if you want this book, you'll get the some content on wikipedia. This book does not even help you think clearly at all...it basically just lists 99 different fallacies and employs a touch-and-go approach towards all these fallacies. Many of these fallacies are simply extensions of one another and most are just common sense. Sometimes you don’t need to get a complete 360-degree view of the situation. Actually, a lot of times, when something important needs to be decided, it’s best to remain on your own. With your own thoughts to make your mind. A key fundamental to our very existence today, like it has been for ages, thinking, is an art as much as anything else. An art to hone. But that’s easier said than done. The Art of Thinking is a book that aims to help you in that respect. It is a book that will have different takeaways for each of us. Because each of us think differently. Even when we think erroneously, we do it differently. But it is a book you need to read, and take away only what you need. It does as good a job as a holistic book as it does as a go-to guide whenever you need.