How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer is one of the best books I’ve read this year. It is in serious contention with the Black Swan, and is much the same type of book.
How We Decide is a layman’s walk through current brain research, and what the current thought is behind the nature of intelligence, thinking and decision making. This is not a dry tome; the stories in it are nothing short of riveting. Battleships blowing up, planes crashing, footballs thrown, countries invaded, Costco’s being shopped (well, maybe not the last one) …
The stories are masterfully woven with current brain research in a very readable style. In fact, maybe too readable. This book was very hard to put down.
I put it in the same category as Black Swan since it also represents a change of viewpoint. Where Black Swan says the world is far more random than you or I think it is (and proves it quite elegantly), How We Decide takes the study of the brain and, through stories, shows how we inaccurately perceive our world and our own thinking. It’s delicious stuff (kudos to the cover).
Thanks for sharing this title Ed. I had not seen it and it sounds like something I will enjoy reading. Good heads up!