Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.36 (545 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B002VPE7TW |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-05-12 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
But he also emphasizes how understanding these seven simple cognition traps can help us all make wiser judgments in our daily lives. For anyone whose best-laid plans have been foiled by faulty thinking, Blunder shines the penetrating spotlight of history on decision making and the patterns of thought that can lead us all astray.. In the process, he identifies seven "cognition traps" to avoid. These insidious yet unavoidable mind-sets include:-Exposure Anxiety: fear of being seen as weak-Causefusion: confusing the causes of complex events -Flat View: seeing the world in one dimension-Cure-Allism: thinking that one-size solutions can solve all problems-Infomania: an obsessive relationship to information-Mirror Imaging: thinking the other side thinks like you do-Static Cling: the refusal to accept that circumstances have changed Drawing on examples from history, politics, business and economics, health care, even folk tales and popular culture, Shore illustrates the profound impact blunders can have. But do we? Historian Zachary Shore says no, not always, and he has a long list of examples to prove his point.From colonialism to globalization, from gender wars to civil wars, or any circumstance for which our best solutions backfire, Shore demonstrates how rigid thinking can subtly lead us to undermine ourselves. The resulting mistakes can be valuable, the story goes, because we learn from
Highly Recommended Reading David D. Campana This book was recommended at a CTO Summit I attended in San Diego as a great read for executives in government.This is an excellent book if you want to better understand how people made decisions. With very clear examples (including current examples which allowed me to relate more-so) it afforded me the best opportunity to learn about the cognitive traps we all have made when making decisions. Each chapter breaks down a cognitive trap from Causefusion to Flatview, all clearly defined end explained.. "Smart, enlightening." according to Victor W. Christianson. A most pleasant, interesting, enlightening and hopefully life changing read. You finish, realizing that you are now aware of a handful of flaws in thinking that you have made many times, but conscious that aware of them, you will try consciously to make less of them in the future. Thank you Mr. Shore.. Great read as a history book, but not a good guide to making decisions In Blunder, Zachary Shore takes a look at some big blunders in history. He finds a lot of them, including a few related to the recent invasion of Iraq. Those Iraq blunders have gotten a lot of press in recent years. The other stories Shore tells, though, have not. With all that new material, Shore's talent for telling stories makes the book a fascinating read.Just a couple of comments. First, I like Shore's style. His academic credentials as a historian seem top notch. And his research seems good.
Using examples drawn from history, wars, medicine, business and literature, Shore identifies seven common cognition traps such as causefusion (confusing the causes of complex events), flatview (black and white thinking) and static cling (an inability to accept change). But Shore remains optimistic that society can learn to avoid cognition traps and inevitable blunders by following his prescription of cultivating mental flexibility, empathy, imagination, contrarianism and an open mind. Shore cites examples of various actors (individuals, corporations and even nations) stumbling into one trap or another with unfortunate results (e.g., a person will compound a blunder through different kinds of faulty reasoning). From Publishers Weekly Shore (Breeding Bin Ladens), a professor of national security affairs a