Learning about some biases and heuristics in business and management at university was eye-opening. It made me think about how I've been affected by them in different scenarios and what I should be wary of in the future when making decisions. Reading this book further introduced me to other fallacies and provided different interesting perspectives.
Content: This book is easy to read, with each chapter spanning 3 pages, covering the various circumstances and events that could prevent us from thinking clearly. Some examples are the sleeper effect, domain dependence, and "not-invented-here syndrome".
Estimated reading time needed: 10h
Key takeaways:
1) Never ask a barber if you need a haircut. Understand the "what's in it for them" to determine if they truly have your interest at heart.
2) Regression to mean - sometimes we perform well, sometimes badly. While this may be true to a certain extent, the key question would then be how do we improve the mean? The answers are practice and familiarisation for me.
3) Less is more - the paradox of choice is when we have too many choices and are unable to make a decision. I think it could also be that there are too many variables that we must consider when making decisions. The fix - write down non-negotiables on what exactly you want from it, then filter your choices.
4) Inductive thinking can be dangerous - the thinking that because it has always been this way in the past, it should continue in the future. It reminds me of the need to be careful when investing - stocks don't always go up, and even if they did in the past, it may not be the case in the future.
5) Alternative blindness can obscure our views on our choices. When people give us A or B, always think outside the box if there are other alternatives that we can choose.
6) Self-imposed deadlines work better if they are broken down into smaller parts.
7) How we can curb envy - stop comparing ourselves to others, find our circle of competence, create a niche and become a master in it. "It's okay to be envious, but only of the person you aspire to become".
Recommendation: It's an average book to read in my opinion. There are lots of information consolidated in this book, teaching us about the various fallacies and biases. However, we will probably be unable to take many of these into consideration during our day-to-day lives. We can make it more actionable by writing down our thoughts and slowing down our thinking, which is not very practical for our day-to-day activities. Perhaps do this for the more important decisions instead.
